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JOSEPH  VmDDELL  CLOKEY  D.D. 


FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 


REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 


THE  LIBRARY  OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


'^^M^: 


6 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/davidsharpinsongOOclok 


DAVID'S  HARP 


SONG  AND  STORY, 


JOSEPH   WADDELL  CLOKEY.  D.  D. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 


W.  J.  ROBINSON,  D.  D. 


"  The  Harp  the  Hebrew  minstrel  swept, 

The  King  of  Men,  the  loved  of  Heaven, 

Which  Music  hallow'd  while  she  wept 

O'er  tones  her  heart  of  hearts  had  given, 
Redoubled  be  her  tears,  its  chords  are  riven ! 

It  soften'd  men  of  iron  mold. 

It  gave  them  virtues  not  their  own ; 

No  ear  so  dull,  no  soul  so  cold, 

That  felt  not,  fired  not  to  the  tone, 

Till  David's  lyre  grew  mightier  than  his  throne." 

— Enron. 


PITTSBURGH  : 

UNITED   PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION. 

63  AND  55  Ninth  Street, 

1896 


DEDICATION. 


To  the  memory  of  my  Sainted  Parents  is  dedicated  this 
History  of  the  Bible  Psalms,  which  supplied  for  their  life- 
time the  sole  material  of  their  praise,  both  in  their  church 
and  home.  If  they  are  now,  in  the  other  life,  in  conscious 
touch  with  us  in  this,  it  will  be  a  pleasant  thought  to  them 
to  know  that  they  have  children  in  earth  who  will  never 
cease  to  be  grateful  to  them  that  they  led  their  feet  in  child- 
life  by  the  green  pastures  and  still  waters  of  a  Holy  Bible 
and  a  Holy  Psalmody. 

New  Albany,  Ind. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction 
Chapter     I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 


by  Dr.  Robinson 6 

The  Psalms 11 

The  Psalms  in  the  Jewish  Church 18 

Primitive  Church 46 

Dark  Ages 64 

Reformation 90 

Swiss  and  French  Ref- 
ormation  107 

Netherlands 134 

English  Reformation. .  149 
Scotch  Reformation. . .  177 
American  Colonies. . .  .  207 
American  Presbyterian 

Churches 225 

Psalm    Singing    Among    the  Early  New 
England  Puritans 249 


PREFACE. 


At  one  of  the  last  sessions  of  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly 
held  in  Pittsburg  in  the  month  of  Maj',  the  following  communication 
was  read  by  the  stated  clerk  : 

"  To  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  now  in  session 
in  Pittsburg : 

"  Dear  Fathers  and  Brethren — The  undersigned  beg  leave  to  state 
that  they  are  chairmen  of  committees  appointed  by  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  United  Presbyterian  church  now  in  this  city  and  by  the 
synod  of  the  Eeformed  Presbyterian  church,  respectively,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  a  metrical  version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  which  will  be 
correct  and  elegant  and  conform  to  the  present  canons  of  literary  taste  in 
the  English  tongue.  The  object  proposed  is  not  to  commit  any  body  oi 
Christians  to  the  use  of  such  book  in  whole  or  in  part  when  completed, 
but  to  secure,  if  possible,  a  metrical  translation  of  the  Psalter  of  such 
excellence  as  will  commend  it  to  the  taste  and  judgment  of  all  who  may 
desire  to  use  the  Psalms  in  praise,  and  as  will  secure  it  a  place  in  the 
hymnody  of  all  the  churches. 

"  It  is  believed  that  the  material  for  such  a  version  is  already  in 
hand  and  is  to  be  found  in  the  many  versions  and  the  many  manuals 
of  the  churches,  as  also  in  many  separate  individual  renderings.  Thus, 
while  new  renderings  would  not  be  excluded  from  consideration,  the 
proposed  work  would  be  chiefly  that  of  collation,  selection  and  compila- 
tion of  metrical  translations  now  in  existence. 

"  We  are  instructed  by  the  bodies  which  we  represent  to  solicit  the 
co-operation  in  this  revision  of  other  bodies  of  Christians  which  have 
authorized  in  their  standards  the  use  of  the  Psalms  in  praise. 

"We  therefore  request  this  General  Assembly,  representing  the 
largest  and  most  influential  of  the  Presbyterian  bodies,  to  consider  this 
proposal  favorably  and  to  appoint  a  committee  to  co-operate  in  this  work, 
being  assured  that  your  example  in  so  doing  would  be  readily  followed 
by  all  the  Reformed  churches. 

"W.  J.  Robinson, 
"Chair.  Com.  United  Presbyterians. 
"  W.  J.  Coleman, 
"Chair.  Com.  Reformed  Presbyterians." 
May  27,  1895. 


The  members  of  the  Assembly  at  the  time,  perhaps,  looked  on  a 
favorable  response  to  this  communication  more  in  the  light  of  a  courtesy 
than  anything  else,  and  so  appointed  a  corresponding  committee.  The 
question  of  her  Psalmody  had  not  been  one  of  the  agitated  topics  of  the 
church,  and  few,  if  any,  of  the  delegates  felt  that  here  was  a  proposition 
of  serious  import.  The  falling  of  the  communication  among  such  a  body 
intensely  stirred  by  questions  connected  with  seminary  control,  was  like 
the  dropping  of  a  leaf  in  a  tempest,  yet,  it  was  a  leaf  borne  by  a  dove  to 
the  ark  that  told  of  the  subsidence  of  the  flood,  and  the  reappearing  of 
the  forests  and  the  soil  that  had  been  for  months  covered  from  sight. 
So  may  not  this  communication  fi"om  two  bodies  of  Presbyterians  to  a 
third,  by  a  prophetic  leaf,  omening  such  a  setthng  down  of  denomina- 
tional agitations  as  will  bring  to  the  surface,  as  never  before,  the  Psalms 
of  the  Bible,  which  have  been  so  often  obscured  amid  the  contentions 
over  other  important  affairs.  To  this  united  committee  from  these  three 
leading  bodies  of  Christians  this  little  work  goes  with  its  silent  plea.  It 
is  sent  to  you  that  the  Psalms  may  tell  their  own  story.  They  come  in 
no  spirit  of  dispute  ;  they  do  not  propose  to  take  issue  with  you  on  any 
of  the  questions  of  your  Psalmody  over  which  you  conscientiously  differ. 
At  present  they  only  plead  for  greater  prominence  in  the  praises  of 
Zion.  We  are  part  of  God's  Inspired  Word,  they  say  to  you,  sent  down 
from  Heaven  through  the  movings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  we  may  be  sung 
in  the  praises  of  God's  people.  For  more  than  twenty-five  centuries  we 
have  been  in  the  worship  of  the  church,  and  what  we  have  done  in  all 
these  long  ages,  in  comforting  and  inspiring  the  people  of  God,  we  are 
still  capable  of  doing  for  the  ages  to  come.  Are  you,  and  are  your 
difficulties  and  dangers,  and  experiences,  so  different  from  your  fathers 
who  loved  us,  that  you  can  afford  to  consign  us  to  an  obscure  corner  in 
your  Books  of  Song  !  We  claim  a  high  place  in  your  material  of  praise. 
Kead  our  story  and  consider  our  plea. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  Book  of  Psalms  is  a  unique  portion  of  the  Inspired  vohime. 
While  it  is  vitally,  as  well  as  structurally,  a  part  of  the  sacred  Book, 
breathing  the  same  spirit,  and  throbbing  with  the  pulsations  of  the  same 
divine  life  which  animates  the  whole,  yet  in  its  structure,  matter,  style 
and  tone,  it  differs  from  all  the  other  books  of  the  Bible.  As  another 
has  well  said,  "It  is  not  the  history  of  God's  people,  or  of  God's  ways 
with  them,  nor  is  it  the  inculcation  of  positive  doctrines  or  duties,  nor 
the  formal  prophetic  announcement  of  coming  events.  These  are  in  the 
Psalms,  it  is  true,  but  only  in  a  subordinate  way.  History,  prophecy, 
providence,  doctrine  and  law  are  all  here,  but  these  form  nothing  more 
than  the  frame  around  which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  built  the  praise, 
prayer  and  adoration  of  the  Lord's  people."  Dr.  Addison  Alexander,  in 
his  learned  exegetical  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  points  out  the  follow- 
ing distinctive  characteristics  of  the  book:  "These  hundred  and  fifty 
independent  pieces,  different  as  they  are,  have  this  in  common,  that 
they  are  all  poetical,  not  merely  imaginative  and  expressive  of  feeling, 
but  stamped  externally  with  that  peculiar  character  of  parallelism 
which  distinguishes  the  higher  style  of  Hebrew  composition  from 
ordinary  prose.  A  still  more  marked  resemblance  is  that  they  are  all  not 
only  poetical,  but  lyrical,  i.  e.,  songs,  poems  intended  to  be  sung,  and 
with  musical  accompaniment.  Thirdly,  they  are  all  religious  lyrics, 
even  those  which  seem  at  first  sight  the  most  secular  in  theme  and  spirit, 
but  which  are  all  found  on  inquiry  to  be  strongly  expressive  of  religious 
feeling.  In  the  fourth  place,  they  are  all  ecclesiastical  lyrics.  Psalms  or 
Hymns,  intended  to  be  permanently  used  in  public  worship,  not  ex- 
cepting those  which  bear  the  clearest  impress  of  original  connection  with 
the  social,  domestic  or  personal  relations  and  experiences  of  the  writers." 
Like  every  other  portion  of  the  Sacred  Volume,  the  Book  of  Psalms  is 
the  Word  of  God,  the  expression  of  the  Divine  mind  toward  sinful 
men,  "The  revelation  of  the  will  of  God  for  human  salvation,"  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness."  But  unlike  every  other  portion  of  the  Volume,  in  its 
structure,  matter,  style  and  form,  it  seems  to  be  specially  adapted  to  the 
use  of  formal  praise  and  worship.  It  is  a  book  complete  in  itself.  It 
depends  for  its  interpretation,  and  for  its  highest  uses,  upon  every  other 
part  of  the  Word,  yet  it  stands  out  with  a  recognized  prominence  that 
distinguishes  it  as  "theDivinest  of  these  Divine  Words."     In  its  themes 

6 


it  compasses  the  whole  range  of  revealed  truth.  It  opens  the  door  into 
the  very  inner  sanctuary  of  the  Divine  mind.  It  lays  bare  the  secrets  of 
the  human  heart.  It  sweeps  every  chord  in  the  entire  gamut  of  human 
feeling,  and  attunes  its  voice  to  all  the  varying  moods,  and  changing 
experiences,  which  make  up  the  spiritual  life  of  the  child  of  God  on  earth. 
"There,"  says  Luther,  "you  look  right  down  into  the  heart  of  saints, 
and  behold  all  manner  of  joys  and  joyous  hearts  toward  God  and  his 
love  springing  lustily  into  life  !  Again,  you  look  into  the  heart  of  saints 
as  into  death  and  hell !  How  gloomy  and  dark  their  mournful  visions  of 
God."  What  notes  of  joy,  outbursts  of  gladness  and  songs  of  praise 
echo  and  re-echo  through  this  wonderful  book  !  And  yet  how  much  of 
the  song  is  modulated  to  the  expression  of  grief  and  sorrow.  "The  Book 
is  a  'Psalm  of  Life'  ",  and  it  sings  in  both  the  major  and  minor  keys, 
because  human  life  has  both  joys  and  sorrows.  What  a  mirror  it  is  of 
the  human  heart  burdened  with  sin,  redeemed  by  grace,  struggling 
against  ten  thousand  enemies  within  and  without,  helpless  in  itself, 
laying  hold  upon  the  divine  strength,  in  the  depths  to-day,  and  crying 
out  in  fear  and  anguish  on  the  Rock  to-morrow,  and  shouting  the  songs 
of  deliverance,  now  wailing  the  cry  of  utter  despair,  and  anon  rising 
exultant  on  the  wings  of  hope,  "  faint,  yet  pursuing  !  "  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  true  child  of  God  finds  the  Book  of  Psalms  the  very  manual  of 
his  spiritual  life.  Though  written  ages  before  the  fuller  revelation  of  the 
Gospel  had  been  given,  this  Book  is  irradiated  with  the  brightest  beams 
of  Gospel  Hght.  It  was  rich  and  full  as  the  honey-comb  to  the  Old 
Testament  saint,  but  it  has  a  richer  fulness  and  a  sweeter  taste  to  him 
who  has  entered  most  largely  into  "the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.''  Spurgeon  writes  in  the  Preface  to  the  last  volume 
of  "  The  Treasury  of  David,"  as  the  testimony  of  his  experience  in  the 
study  of  the  Book,  "The Book  of  Psalms  instructs  us  in  the  use  of  wings 
as  well  as  words  ;  it  sets  us  both  mounting  and  singing.  Often  have  I 
ceased  my  <iommenting  upon  the  text,  that  I  might  rise  with  the  Psalm, 
and  gaze  upon  the  visions  of  God."  And  what  multitudes  of  the  best 
and  holiest  of  the  followers  of  Jesus  have  found  in  this  Book,  the  songs 
which  have  made  melody  "  in  the  house  of  their  pilgrimage  !  "  Well 
may  the  celebrated  Tholuck  say,  "Songs,  which  like  the  Psalms  have 
stood  the  test  of  three  thousand  years,  contain  a  germ  for  eternity."  And 
yet  another  distinction  belongs  to  this  Book.  These  songs,  so  rich,  full 
and  complete  in  all  the  material  for  the  worship  of  God,  so  adapted  in 
their  clear  and  graphic  expression  of  all  the  emotions  and  experiences 
of  true  piety,  to  the  purposes  of  worship,  so  adequate  to  all  the  uses  of 
worship,  are  declared  by  their  very  style  and  structure  to  have  been 
designed  by  their  Author,  for  the  service  of  worship.  This  is  the  con- 
clusion to  which  all  scholarly  study  of  the  Book  invariably  leads.     Few, 


if  any,  competent  Expositors  have  failed  to  express  this  conviction.  The 
great  and  prominent  purpose  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  as  indicated  by  its 
matter,  style  and  structure,  was  to  furnish  the  Church  with  an  inspired 
Psalter  for  her  service  of  praise  on  earth.  Has  the  Church  accepted  and 
acted  upon  this  divine  intent  in  giving  the  Book?  Has  she  made  use  of 
it  as  the  manual  of  her  formal  Praise  in  the  worship  of  her  God  ?  A 
glance  at  the  Church  to-day  suggests  a  negative  answer  to  the  question. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  smaller  branches,  the  great  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  has  found  other,  and  in  her  judgment,  better  and  more 
appropriate  material  for  rendering  the  high  praises  of  God  in  her  public 
worship  than  is  furnished  by  the  inspired  Psalter.  The  genius  of  un- 
inspired men  has  created  a  hymnody  for  praise  and  worship,  drawn  from 
the  inspired  Word,  and  from  the  store-house  of  human  experience,  which 
has  been  accepted  by  the  Church,  as  better  fitted  to  express  the  reverent 
adoration,  praise  and  homage  due  from  the  creature  to  the  great 
Creator,  than  the  inspired  Psalms  and  Hymns  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures. And  hence,  the  voice  of  inspired  Psalm  is  seldom  heard  in  the 
public  worship  of  the  modern  Church.  Has  it  always  been  thus?  Has 
this  divinely-given  Book  of  Praises  never  approved  itself  to  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  Church  ?  Or  is  its  exclusion  from  the  service  of  praise 
a  modern  innovation  ?  These  are  inquiries  which  cannot  but  be  of  great 
interest  to  every  lover  of  the  inspired  Word.  It  is  believed  that  these 
inquiries  find  a  very  satisfactory  answer  in  the  pages  of  this  Work.  The 
Author  has  undertaken  to  show,  by  a  careful  study  of  the  history  of  the 
Church,  what  is  the  estimate  which  the  Church  in  all  past  ages  has 
placed  upon  the  inspired  Psalter,  and  what  is  the  place  she  has  given  it 
in  her  service  of  worship.  Well  fitted  for  the  necessary  study  and  re- 
search, by  his  taste,  his  scholarly  attainments,  his  mental  acumen,  dis- 
cipline and  equipment,  and  his  access  to  the  Authorities,  Dr.  Clokey  has 
traced  the  history  of  the  Psalter  from  its  first  appearance  in  the  Hebrew 
Church,  down  through  all  the  Christian  ages  to  the  present  time.  And 
b}'  an  accumulation  of  undisputed  testimonies,  he  has  shown  that  this 
incomparable  Book  of  Praises  has  not  only  furnished  the  material  for 
the  Church's  praise  through  all  the  ages  past,  but  has  also  been  her  sup- 
port in  the  times  of  her  severest  trials,  her  "Battle Cry"  in  her  great 
conflicts  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  the  inspiration  to  her  glorious 
"Works  of  faith,  and  labors  of  love."  He  has  disclosed  the  fact  that 
these  inspired  Psalms  have  played  an  important  part  in  the  great 
"  Revivals  "  and  Reformation  movements,  which  have  so  often  awakened 
the  slumbering  Church,  and  lifted  her  up  to  a  higher  plane  of  life. 
He  has  also  made  prominent  the  fact  that  these  Psalms  have  been  a 
great  conserving  power  in  the  Church,  standing  as  a  bulwark  of  defense 
to  the  truth  against  the  assaults  of  error.     And  thus  we  believe  that  this 

8 


volume  is  not  only  a  timely  and  valuable  contribution  to  the  religious 
literature  of  the  day,  but  also  a  full  vindication  of  the  claims  of  the 
inspired  Psalter  to  be  the  divinely-appointed  and  all-sufficient  Hymnody 
of  the  Church  on  earth,  and  a  mighty  plea  for  its  restoration  to  its 
rightful  place  in  the  modern  Church.  The  work  is  commended  to  the 
Christian  public,  with  the  full  assurance  that  a  careful  perusal  of  ita 
contents  will  awaken  a  new  interest  in  this  most  precious  portion  of  the 
Word  of  God,  and  with  the  hope  that  it  will  give  a  mighty  impulse  to 
the  movement  which  has  already  begun,  to  unite  the  whole  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  use  of  God's  own  Songs,  in  the  service  of  his  praise 
and  worship. 

W.  J.  Robinson. 
Allegheny,  Pa.,  Feb.,  1896. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Psalms. 

A  French  infidel  has  called  the  Psalms  ' '  the  poetry  of 
religious  souls. ' '  This  compliment  is  full  of  meaning  and 
reveals  more  than  usual  acquaintance  with  the  history  and 
character  of  the  Psalms.  Were  his  ' '  Life  of  Jesus  ' '  as  faith- 
ful a  portrayal  of  truth,  the  world  would  acknowledge  itself 
under  an  eternal  debt  of  gratitude  to  him.  The  poetic 
merits  of  these  Bible  lyrics  have  never  been  disputed.  They 
have  been  extolled  by  literature's  most  eminent  critics.  The 
very  greatest  of  our  poets  frankly  confess  their  indebtedness 
to  them  for  that  which  gives  life  to  their  numbers — poetic 
inspiration.  The  Psalms  possess  no  instance  of  the  extrava- 
gance of  an  excited  fancy  ;  yet  have  they  the  sublimit}^  of 
the  most  exalted  genius.  They  never  descend  to  triteness 
nor  vulgarity  ;  yet  are  they  grand  in  their  simplicity.  They 
are  nature's  own  poetry.  Like  the  swelling  of  the  sea  or 
the  murmur  of  the  brook  ;  like  the  rushing  of  the  storm  or 
the  silent  falling  of  the  sunshine,  they  move,  not  as  if  con- 
trolled and  impelled  by  some  force  from  without,  but  as  by 
the  impulse  of  a  principle  and  under  the  guidance  of  a  law. 
They  are  a  true  representative  of  the  poetry  of  that  age 
when  the  imagination  and  the  heart  were  not  constrained  by 
a  narrow  poetic  creed,  but  roamed  in  freedom  and  yielded 
only  to  nature's  inspirings.  The  soul,  in  all  the  variety  of 
its  experience  ;  in  the  enthusiasm  of  its  joy  or  the  depression 
of  its  grief  ;  in  the  buoyancy  of  its  hopes,  the  agitation  of 
its  fears,  the  harassing  of  its  doubts,  can  find  no  freer,  fuller 
utterance  than  in  the  Psalms  of  Holy  Writ. 

The  Psalms  exhibit  that  without  which  no  poem  can  be 


12  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

a  portraiture  of  true  human  experience — piety.  It  is  be- 
cause of  their  eminently  religious  character,  that  they  have 
formed  the  staple  of  the  sacred  songs  of  the  Church  for 
three  thousand  years. 

The  ' '  new  creature' '  in  Christ  being  the  same  in  all 
ages,  the  harp  of  Judah  has  never  ceased  to  awaken  sympathy 
in  the  hearts  of  God's  people.  Truly  remarkable  is  the 
endurance  of  the  Psalms  ;  their  changes  from  age  to  age, 
from  race  to  race,  from  clime  to  clime,  have  left  no  evidences 
of  decay.  For  centuries  they  served  in  the  temple ;  for 
centuries  they  have  mingled  in  the  devotions  of  the  New 
Economy,  yet  are  they  as  new  and  vigorous  as  when  first 
they  sprung  from  the  souls  of  their  inspired  authors.  Well 
has  Tholuck  said,  ' '  Songs,  which,  like  the  Psalms,  have 
stood  the  test  of  three  thousand  years,  contain  a  germ  for 
eternity. ' '  The  universal  appreciation  of  the  Psalms  has  been 
no  less  remarkable.  Like  a  sparkling  spring  they  have 
welcomed  and  refreshed  every  soul  that  has  sought  their 
cooling  waters.  We  do  not  wonder  that  genius  has  been 
attracted  to  their  beauty.  They  bear  the  impress  of  a  divine 
origin,  and  must  possess  depths  of  excellence  that  will,  to 
human  intellects,  ever  reveal  new  truths  or  known  truth 
in  new  attractions.  These  Psalms  comforted  Chrysostom, 
Athanasius,  Savonarola — great  minds  of  earlier  years — in 
their  retreat  from  persecution.  Poly  carp,  Columba,  Hilde- 
brand,  Bernard,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Columbus,  Huss,  Edward 
VI.,  Ximenes,  Xavier,  Melancthon,  and  Jewell,  varying  in 
their  creeds  and  characters,  yet,  in  common,  great  in  birth 
or  intellect,  all  breathed  their  last  utterances  in  words  from 
the  Psalms.  Sentiments  from  his  Psalter  were  the  last 
words  that  fell  upon  the  ear  of  Charles  V.,  the  imperial  foe 
to  the  Reformation.     Locke,  in  his  last  days,  bade  a  friend 


THE  PSALMS.  13 

read  the  Psalms  aloud,  and  it  was  while  in  wrapt  attention 
to  them  that  the  stroke  of  death  fell  upon  him.  So  dear  to 
Wallace,  in  his  wanderings,  was  his  psalm  book  that  when 
brought  to  the  place  of  execution,  he  had  it  hung  before 
him,  and  his  eyes  remained  fixed  upon  it  as  the  consolation 
of  his  dying  hours.  Henry  V. ,  of  England,  at  his  death-bed 
had  the  penitential  Psalms  read  to  him.  When  the  priest 
came  to  the  words  of  the  Fifty-first  Psalm,  '  'Build  thou  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem, ' '  the  warlike  genius  of  the  dying  King  was 
aroused,  and  he  exclaimed:  "Ah,  had  God  suffered  me  to 
live  out  my  days  and  bring  this  French  war  to  a  close,  I  am 
the  man  who  would  have  conquered  the  Holy  Land."  The 
great  Addison  found  the  Twenty -third  Psalm,  throughout  his 
life,  the  best  expression  of  his  devotion.  "  I  have  lost  a 
world  of  time,"  said  the  learned  Salmasius  on  his  death-bed  ; 
"If  I  had  one  year  more,  I  would  spend  it  in  reading  the 
Psalms  of  David  and  Paul's  Epistles." 

Humbolt  was  an  especial  admirer  of  the  One  hundred 
and  fourth  Psalm.  He  called  it  a  picture  of  the  entire 
cosmos,  and  adds,  "We  are  astonished  to  see  within  the 
compass  of  a  poem  of  such  small  dimensions,  the  universe, 
the  heavens,  and  the  earth  drawn  with  a  few  grand  strokes. " 
The  unhappy  Darnley  was  soothed  in  the  toils  of  his  enemies 
by  the  Fifty-fifth  Psalm. 

Burleigh  selected  the  Psalms — over  the  rest  of  the 
Bible — as  his  especial  delight.  Luther  called  them  his 
"Little  Bible,"  and  made  them  the  framework  of  his  devo- 
tions, and  the  substance  of  his  war  cries.  "This  sweet- 
smelling  bundle  of  Psalms, ' '  said  Dickson,  of  Scotland. 

But  the  burden  of  the  history  of  these  sacred  songs  comes 
from  the  homes  of  the  lowly  and  obscure.  Where  the  names 
of  Homer,   Dante,  Byron,  Shelley,  Milton  are  never  heard, 


14  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  Psalms  are  sung,  read,  committed  to  memory,  repeated, 
as  though  the  exclusive  boon  of  earth's  unknown.  From  how 
many  lips,  now  closed  in  death,  have  gone  up  the  sweet 
music  of  Judea's  hallowed  songs  !  From  how  many  cots 
of  disease  ;  from  how  many  deserts  and  rocks,  and  caves, 
and  forests  ;  from  how  many  crosses  and  guillotines  have 
echoed  back  to  ancient  Jerusalem  the  vibrations  of  David's 
Psaltery  !  The  history  of  the  Psalms  as  they  nourished  and 
comforted  the  captives  in  Babylon,  the  hunted  worshipers 
under  the  cruelty  of  Roman  Emperors,  the  Waldenses,  in 
their  mountain  retreats,  the  Huguenots,  in  their  desert 
worship  or  in  banishment,  and  the  Covenanters  among  the 
rugged  resorts  of  the  Highlands — in  all  they  have  done  for 
unnumbered  hearts  and  homes,  can  never  be  written. 

Whence  this  agreement  in  love  and  admiration  for  the 
book  of  Psalms  ?  Doubtless  in  the  fact  that  they  are  the 
poems  of  the  heart.  However  men  may  differ  in  their 
habits  of  thought,  their  tastes,  education,  position  and  origin, 
the  workings  of  the  human  heart  are  everywhere  the  same. 
A  tear  is  a  tear,  whether  it  fall  upon  the  cheek  of  the  galley 
slave  or  of  a  King  or  a  poet ;  so  with  joy,  grief,  love,  fear, 
doubt,  distress  ;  external  distinctions  do  not  run  into  the 
bosoms  of  men.  In  the  heart  is  the  unity  of  the  human 
race.  The  Psalms  are  the  pure  offspring  of  emotion  ;  go 
forth  saturated  with  the  feeling  of  natures  deeply  stirred  by 
the  experiences  of  the  inner  life,  and  so  are  profoundly 
human.  Men  everywhere  and  in  all  times  and  positions  love 
them,  because  every  one  sees  in  them  the  exact  and  full 
mirroring  of  his  own  soul.  Nor  can  they  ever  be  despised 
or  even  find  a  successful  rival  till  the  race  ceases  to  be  what 
it  is,  and  its  living  myriads  rise  to  sing  heaven's  new  Psalms, 
or  sink  to  the  wailings  of  despair. 


THE  PSALMS.  15 

The  selection  of  a  few  of  the  many  eloquent  encomiums 
upon  the  Psalms  may  claim  a  place  here  as  a  part  of  their 
history  and  literature  : 

"So  far  from  questioning  the  poetry  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  there 
existed  no  productions  which  could  be  conceived  vaore poetical,  harmonious 
and  heart-stirring  and  mostly  more  ecstatic  than  just  the  Psalms." — Henry 
Stephanus. 

"The  use  of  the  Psalms  became  the  blessing  of  humanity,  not  only 
on  account  of  their  contents,  but  also  on  account  of  the  form.  Just  as  no 
lyric  poet  among  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  furnished  such  a  mass  of 
doctrine,  consolation  and  instruction,  so  there  is  hardly  anywhere  to  be 
found  so  rich  a  variety  of  tone  in  every  species  of  song  as  here.  For  two 
thousand  years  have  the  Psalms  frequently  and  differently  been  translated  and 
imitated,  and  stiU  there  are  many  new  formations  of  their  much-embracing  and  rich 
tnanner  possible.  They  are  flowers  which  change  their  appearance  in  every  time 
and  in  every  soil — hit  always  bloom  in  the  beauty  of  youth.  Just  because  the 
Psalter  contains  the  simplest  lyrical  expressions  of  the  most  diversified 
feelings — it  is  the  hymn-book  for  all  times." — Herder. 

"David  yields  me  every  day  the  most  delightful  hour.  There  is 
nothing  Greek,  nothing  Roman,  nothing  in  the  West,  nor  in  the  land 
towards  midnight  to  equal  David,  when  the  God  of  Israel  chose  to  praise 
him  higher  than  the  gods  of  the  nations.  The  utterance  of  his  mind 
sinks  deep  into  my  heart,  and  never  in  my  life,  never  have  I  thus  seen  God." 
— John  Mueller. 

"  One  word  from  the  Psalms  was  a  sunbeam  to  me  ;  like  a  lark,  I 
settled  on  the  pinions  of  that  eagle  ;  carried  by  her,  I  scaled  the  rock, 
and  beheld  from  that  eminence  the  world,  with  its  cares  and  mine, 
stretched  out  beneath  me  ;  I  acquired  to  think,  infer,  mourn,  pray,  wait, 
hope  and  speak  in  the  spirit  of  David  :  '  I  thank  thee,  0  Lord,  that  thou 
hast  humbled  me.  '****'  Next  to  the  writings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, these  are  to  me  my  dearest  and  most  precious  book — the  golden 
mirror,  the  cyclopaedia  of  the  most  blessed  and  fruitful  knowledge  and 
experience  of  my  life  ;  to  thoroughly  understand  them  will  be  the  occu- 
pation of  eternity,  and  our  second  life  will  form  their  commentary." — 
John  Jacob  Moser. 

"  The  Book  of  Psalms  is  a  vase  of  perfume  broken  on  the  steps  of 
the  temple  and  shedding  abroad  its  odors  to  the  heart  of  all  humanity- 
The  little  Shepherd  has  become  the  master  of  the  sacred  choir  of  the 
miiverse.     A  chord  of  his  harp  is  to  be  found  in  all  choirs,  resounding 


16  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

forever  in  unison  with  the  echoes  of  Horeb  and  Engedi.  David  is  the 
psalmist  of  eternity.  What  power  hath  poetry  when  inspired  by  the 
Almighty  God!" — Lamartine. 

"These  works  (the  Psalms,  allegories  of  Solomon,  and  prophecies  of 
Isaiahj  are  set  forth  with  a  splendor  and  a  sublimity  which,  considered 
merely  as  poetry,  excite  our  wonder  and  disdain  all  comparison  with  any 
other  composition  ;  they  form  a  fountain  of  fiery  and  God-like  inspira- 
tion of  which  the  greatest  modern  poets  have  never  been  weary  of  drink- 
ing, which  has  suggested  to  them  their  noblest  images  and  animated 
them  for  their  most  magnificent  flights." — Schlegel. 

"  It  is  in  the  main  owing  to  the  religious  and  devotional  qualities  of 
the  Hebrew  p>oetry  that  the  Book  of  Psalms  still,  after  the  lapse  of  so 
many  centuries,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  so  many  modes  of  thought  and 
forms  of  social  life,  holds  an  emi^ire  over  the  hearts  of  men  far  wider  and 
deeper  and  more  influential  than  what  any  other  influence  has  possessed, 
save  only  that  which  is  and  will  ever  be  exercised  by  David's  greater 
Son."— kitto. 

"The  Psalms  thus  applied  have  advantages  that  no  fresh  composi- 
tions, however  finely  executed,  can  possibly  have.  Since,  besides  their 
incomparable  fineness  to  express  our  sentiments,  they  are,  at  the  same 
time,  memorials  of  and  appeals  to  former  mercies  and  deliverances  ;  they 
are  acknowledgments  of  prophecies  accomplished  ;  they  point  out  the 
connection  between  the  old  and  new  dispensations,  whereby  teaching  us 
to  admire  and  adore  the  wisdom  of  God  displayed  in  both  and  furnishing 
while  we  read  or  sing  them,  an  inexhaustible  variety  of  the  noblest 
matter  that  can  engage  the  contemplations  of  men." — Home. 

"  Those  holy  songs  are  nothing  else  than  the  expressions  and  breath- 
ings of  devout  and  holy  aSections  :  such  as  an  humble  and  fervent  love 
to  God,  admiration  of  His  glorious  perfections  and  wonderful  works, 
earnest  desires,  thirstings  and  j^an tings  of  soul  after  Him.  And  these 
expressions  of  holy  afi'ection  of  which  the  Psalms  of  David  are  every- 
where full,  are  the  more  to  our  present  purpose,  because  those  Psalms 
are  not  only  the  expression  of  the  religion  of  so  eminent  a  Saint,  but 
were  also  by  the  direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit  penned  for  the  use  of  the 
Church,  not  only  in  that  age  but  in  after  ages." — Jonathan  Edwards. 

"  The  soul  of  the  reformer  has  vibrated  under  them  (the  Psalms)  to  its 
depths  ;  and  the  lone  hand  of  Luther  holding  his  banner  before  the  eyes 
of  Europe,  has  trembled  less  that  it  was  stretched  out  to  the  time  of 
David's  heroic  Psalms.  On  them  the  freed  spirit  of  the  Martyr  has 
soared  away.     And  have  not  destruction  and  death  heard  their  fame, 


THE  PSALMS.  17 

when  on  the  brown  heaths  of  Scotland,  the  stern  lay  was  lifted,  by  the 
persecuted,  like  a  new  drawn  sword, and  waved  flashing  before  the  eyes 
of  the  foemen — 

*  In  Judah's  land  God  is  well  known, 
His  name's  in  Israel  great,'  etc. 
"Wild,  holy,  tameless  strains  ;  how  have  ye  run  down  through  ages,  in 
which  large  poems,  systems  and  religions  have  perished,  firing  the  souls 
of  poet^,  kissing  the  lips  of  children,  smoothing  the  pillows  of  the  dying, 
stirring  the  warrior  to  heroic  rage,  perfuming  the  chambers  of  solitarj'- 
Saints  and  clasping  into  one  the  hearts  and  voices  of  thousands  of 
assembled  worshipers  ;  tinging  many  a  literature  and  finding  a  room 
in  many  a  land,  and  still  ye  are  as  fresh  and  young  and  powerful  as 
ever  ;  yea,  perhaps  preparing  for  even  mightier  triumphs  than  when  first 
chanted  !  Britain,  Germany,  America,  now  sing  you,  but  you  must  yet 
awaken  the  dumb  millions  of  China  and  Japan." — GilfiUan. 

"  We  need  not  dwell  on  this  universality  as  found  in  the  Psahns  of 
David.  Devout  feeling,  and  the  most  learned  critical  research,  alike 
concur  in  the  thought,  that  the  key  to  their  best  interpretation  is  found 
in  that  view  which  regards  them  as  the  divine  songs  of  all  truly  religious 
souls,  the  standing  temple  service  of  all  ages,  so  adapted  to  the  expression 
of  temporal  and  spiritual  sorrows,  temporal  and  spiritual  joys,  temporal 
and  spiritual  salvation,  that  each  may  be  regarded  as  the  primary  or 
secondary  significance,  according  to  the  state  of  soul  in  which  the  in- 
cipient reads  or  chants  the  wondrously  adapted  words.  There  is  nowhere 
in  the  physical  world  any  such  evidence  of  adaptedness  or  design  as  this. 
The  historical  world  certainly  furnishes  nothing  like  it.  Let  it  be  called 
accommodation,  if  any  prefer  the  word  ;  we  could  not  thus  accommodate 
one  of  the  lyric  hymns  of  Greece,  or  a  song  of  the  Rig  Veda." — Tayler 
Lewis. 


CHAPTER  n. 

The  Psalms  in  the  Jewish  Church. 

Some  of  the  old  Jewish  writers,  proud  of  the  antiquitv 
of  their  Psalms,  have  taken  pains  to  prove  to  us  that  Abra- 
ham, Melchisedec,  and  even  Adam,  are  to  be  classed 
among  the  sacred  Psalmists.  But  more  modern  critics  are 
content  with  claiming  the  church's  first  great  Lawgiver  as 
her  first  great  inspired  Poet.  To  Moses,  in  the  present  col- 
lection of  the  Psalms,  is  given  but  one — the  Mnetieth. 
When  that  was  composed,  where,  on  what  occasion,  no  one 
has  told  us.  Its  title  is  its  sole  history — "A  Prayer  of 
Moses."  That  its  strains  came  from  a  soul  when  in  sorrow 
and  oppressed  by  the  consciousness  of  some  present  or  fore- 
known calamity,  our  own  experience  tells  us,  as  we  pass 
over  the  sentiments  of  that  Psalm.  Let  the  reader  place 
himself  by  the  Red  Sea,  with  the  hosts  of  Egypt  struggling 
hopelessly  before  him ;  let  him  visit  the  camp  of  Sennacherib, 
with  its  countless  dead  covering  the  sods  of  the  valley  ;  or 
let  him  listen  to  the  wailings  at  the  final  fall  of  Jerusalem, 
her  streets  in  blood  from  a  million  of  her  slain  ;  let  him  view 
these  scenes  as  one  personally  interested  in  the  dead,  and 
how  fully  will  his  religious  feelings  find  expression  in  the 
pathos  of  these  sad  words  : 

"  3.  Thou  turnest  man  to  destruction ;  and  sayest,  Return,  ye 
children  of  men. 

"  4.  For  a  thousand  years  in  thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday  when  it 
is  past,  and  as  a  watch  in  the  night. 

"  5.  Thou  earnest  them  away  as  with  a  flood  ;  they  are  as  a  sleep  ; 
in  the  morning  they  are  like  grass  which  gi'oweth  up. 

"6.  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth,  and  groweth  up  ;  in  the  evening  it 
is  cut  down,  and  withereth. 

"7.  For  we  are  consumed  by  thine  anger,  and  by  thy  wrath  are  we 
troubled." 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  19 

How  much  of  this  world's  history  has  the  "Prayer  of 
Moses  ' '  seen  ?  Move  than  five  hundred  years  passed  away 
with  it,  before  Homer  penned  his  immortal  Iliad  ;  or  before 
David  played  his  harp  in  the  royal  chamber  of  Saul.  Was 
the  Ninetieth  Psalm  sung  in  the  Wilderness  pilgrimage? 
Did  its  strains  help  express  the  joy  at  the  crossing  of  the 
Jordan,  or  at  the  falling  of  Jericho's  walls?  Perhaps  the 
joung  minstrel  prophets  that  met  Saul  were  chanting  to  the 
music  of  their  instruments,  "Lord,  thou  hast  been  our 
dwelling  place." 

Wonderful  song !  Since  its  inditing,  Greece  has  begun 
and  ended  its  career  of  martial  and  literary  splendor ; 
Komulus  built  a  city  that  grew,  mastered  the  world  ;  that 
fell,  and  is  now  only  remembered  as  the  great  Rome — all 
since  Moses  sang.  Fifteen  hundred  years  of  the  past,  and 
eighteen  hundred  of  the  present  dispensation  have  gone  by — 
thirty-three  centuries,  yet  the  ' '  Prayer  of  Moses  ' '  survives. 
Worn  in  the  bearing  upward  of  countless  prayers,  in  the 
soothings  of  countless  troubled  and  penitent  souls,  it  has 
lost  none  of  its  simple,  sublime  beauty  ;  but  now  awaits 
the  bidding  of  new-born  souls,  as  fresh  as  in  its  Wilderness 
days. 

Leaving  Moses,  one  cannot  pass  over  the  centuries  that 
intervene  in  the  authorship  of  the  Psalter  without  lamenting 
the  loss  of  the  many  inspired  songs  that  comforted  and 
cheered  the  Israelites  in  the  days  of  their  pilgrimage  and 
during  the  rule  of  the  judges.  Did  God  provide  inspired 
men  to  indite  new  songs  from  period  to  period  ?  It  is  not 
passing  the  bounds  of  probability  to  suppose  that  Israel  was 
frequently  supplied  with  Psalms  by  the  prophets  to  be  sung 
in  connection  with  any  that  may  have  descended  to  them 
from  the  days  of  Moses  and  Job.      But  God  has  for  some 


20  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

wise  purpose  shut  out  of  the  Psalter  all  but  one  of  the  ante- 
Davidic  Psalms. 

The  next  Psalmist  we  meet  with  comes  upon  a  throne, 
and  so  surrounds  his  sacred  poetry  with  the  dignity  of  royal 
authorship.  While  the  first  King  of  Israel  was  enjoying  the 
undisputed  authority  of  his  reign,  a  shepherd  lad  was  feeding 
his  father's  sheep  on  the  plains  about  the  ancient  city  of 
Bethlehem,  He  possessed  no  external  distinction,  save  that 
which  was  in  common  with  his  race — he  was  a  Jew.  His 
father  was  from  one  of  the  most  noted  lines  of  Jewish  ancestry, 
but  spent  his  days,  like  his  brethren,  in  the  peaceable  pur- 
suits of  a  shepherd's  life  ;  and  young  David  was  passing 
quietly  into  the  same  calling,  unambitious  and  unsuspecting 
of  a  bright  destiny.  The  choice  of  the  grave  old  prophet 
was  his  first  intimation  of  greatness.  The  gloiy  of  a  successful 
combat  against  the  giant  champion  of  the  Philistines,  and 
the  songs  of  Israel's  daughters  over  his  triumphs  were 
further  premonitions  that  his  valor  was  not  always  to  be 
exercised  against  the  foes  of  his  father's  flocks,  but  had  been 
consecrated  by  an  overruling  power  to  the  exploits  of  a 
soldier  and  a  king. 

Religious  in  spirit,  beautiful  in  person,  heroic  in  danger, 
a  poet,  a  musician,  David  grew  in  favor  with  God  and  men. 
His  royal  preferment,  coming  not  from  inheritance  nor  civil 
suffrage,  but  from  heaven,  an  unseen  hand  safely  guided  his 
footsteps  up  from  the  humble  home  at  Bethlehem,  through 
the  praises  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  to  a  long  and  suc- 
cessful sway  over  a  proud  and  powerful  race. 

But  the  world  thinks  least  of  David,  the  King  ;  most  of 
David,  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel.  The  sovereignty  of 
his  sceptre  extended  over  one  people  and  in  one  generation. 
When  in  the  tomb  of  the  kings,  his  authority  reclined  with 
him  ;  for  the  mere  name  of  royalty,  however  green-preserved 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  21 

in  memory,  can  win  no  victories.  As  a  poet  prince,  David 
rules  as  he  never  ruled  before  ;  though  dead,  the  music  of 
his  voice  still  successfully  summons  obeying  nations,  and 
though  none  now  bow  at  his  throne,  millions  list  and  are 
moved  at  the  touching  of  his  Psaltery. 

David  was  called  as  a  Psalmist  as  well  as  a  King.  His 
education  referred  to  his  songs  as  well  as  to  his  commands. 
Continually  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  led  by  Him  in 
every  pathway  of  life,  and  through  every  form  of  experi- 
ence, David's  Psalms  are  a  miracle  in  their  vast  depth  of 
feeling  and  in  their  comprehension  of  every  shade  of  life 
between  deep  sorrow  and  exultant  joy.  "  His  harp  was  full- 
stringed,  and  every  angel  of  joy  and  sorrow  swept  over  the 
cords  as  he  passed.  For  the  hearts  of  one  hundred  men 
strove  and  struggled  together  in  the  narrow  continent  of  his 
single  heart  ;  and  will  the  scornful  men  have  no  sympathy 
for  one  so  conditioned,  but  scorn  him,  because  he  ruled  not 
with  constant  quietness  the  unruly  hosts  of  divers  natures 
which  dwelt  within  his  single  soul  ?  With  the  defense  of  his 
backslidings,  which  he  had  more  keenly  scrutinized,  more 
clearly  discerned  against,  and  more  bitterly  lamented  than 
any  of  his  censors,  we  do  not  charge  ourselves,  because  they 
were  in  a  manner  necessary,  that  he  might  be  the  full-orbed 
man  that  needed  to  utter  every  form  of  Spiritual  feeling. ' ' 

"  The  Lord  did  not  intend  that  his  Church  should  be  without  a  rule 
for  uttering  its  grief;  and  to  bring  such  a  rule  and  institute  into  being 
He  raised  up  his  servant  David  as  he  had  formerly  raised  up  Moses  to 
give  to  the  Church  an  institute  of  law,  and  to  that  end  he  led  him  the 
round  of  all  human  conditions,  that  he  might  catch  the  Spirit  proper  to 
everyone  and  utter  it  according  to  truth.  He  allowed  him  not  to  curtail 
hi.s  being  by  treading  the  round  of  one  function,  but  every  variety  of 
function.  He  cultivated  his  whole  being,  and  filled  his  soul  with  wisdom 
and  feeling.  He  found  him  objects  for  every  affection,  that  the  affection 
might  not  slumber  and  die.     He  brought  him  up  in  the  sheep  pastures, 


22  David's  harp  in  song  and  stoey. 

that  the  ground -work  of  his  cliaracter  might  be  laid  among  the  simple 
and  univeral  forms  of  feeling.  He  took  him  to  the  camp  and  made  him 
a  conqueror  that  he  might  be  filled  with  nobleness  of  soul  and  ideas  of 
glory.  He  placed  him  in  the  palace  that  he  might  be  filled  with  ideas  of 
majesty  and  sovereign  might.  He  carried  him  to  the  Wilderness  and 
placed  him  in  solitudes  that  his  soul  might  dwell  alone  in  the  sublime 
conceptions  of  God  and  his  mighty  works.  And  he  kept  him  there  for 
long  years  with  only  one  step  between  him  and  death  that  he  might  be 
well  schooled  to  trust  and  depend  upon  the  Providence  of  God." — 
Irving's  Introduction  to  the  Psalms. 

Much  difference  of  opinion  prevails  as  to  the  number  of 
the  canonical  Psalms  of  which  David  was  the  author.  From 
the  general  appellation,  David's  Psalms,  as  commonly  ap- 
plied to  the  Psalter,  the  impression  of  the  masses  is  that 
David  composed  all  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty.  With  this 
impression  corresponds  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  old  Greek 
and  Latin  fathers.  Some  eminent  archaeologists  credit  to 
him  only  seventy-three,  and  others  even  less  than  this,  while 
some  of  the  Jewish  writers  regard  David  as  only  the  com- 
piler of  the  Psalms.  But  by  the  best  authorities  David  is 
regarded  as  the  author  of  at  least  seventy  Psalms. 

By  consulting  the  titles  of  the  Psalms  in  our  English 
Bibles  we  find  that  seventy-three  are  assigned  to  David.  This 
classification  of  King  James'  version  agrees  with  the  Hebrew. 
In  the  Latin  Vulgate  only  seventy  Psalms  are  attributed  to 
the  Hebrew  Psalmist.  As  some  of  the  Psalms  bear  no  names 
of  authors,  and  as  there  is  no  possible  way  of  ascertaining 
their  authorship,  it  is  possible  that  some  or  all  these  came 
from  the  pen  of  David.  Of  two  things  only  are  we  certain, 
that  David  composed  more  of  the  Psalms  than  any  other 
poet,  and  that  he  did  not  compose  all  of  them. 

Following  the  titles  of  the  English  and  Hebrew  Psalters, 
the  Psalmist  immediately  succeeding  David  is  Solomon,  to 
whom  are  attributed  the  Seventy-second  and  One  hundred 
and  twenty-seventh  Psalms.    It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  23 

either  of  these  Psalms  was  composed  by  Solomon.  While 
most  of  the  versions  ascribe  the  Seventy-second  to  him,  the 
Syriac  ascribes  it  to  David,  which  seems  very  probable  since 
the  conclusion  reads,  "The  prayers  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse 
are  ended. ' ' 

The  title  of  the  One  hundred  and  twenty-seventh  Psalm 
in  the  Syriac  reads,  "A  Psalm  of  David  concerning  Solo- 
mon; and  that  it  was  spoken  also  concerning  Haggai  and 
Zechariah,  who  forwarded  the  building  of  the  temple." 
In  the  Septuagint,  ^thiopic,  Arabic  and  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
title  is  simply  "A  Psalm  of  Degrees."  The  Psalm  bears 
internal  evidence  of  having  been  written  at  the  time  of  the 
Iniilding  of  one  of  the  temples,  but  which  one  is  not  known. 
It  is  not  probable  that  the  Psalms  can  claim  Solomon,  the 
gifted  king  and  poet,  among  their  authors,  unless  for  some  of 
those  inserted  without  titles. 

Twelve  Psalms  bear  the  name  of  Asaph.  The  first  Asaph 
of  whom  we  have  any  knowledge,  was  a  celebrated  musician 
in  the  days  of  David,  and  the  son  of  Berachiah  of  the  tribe  of 
Levi.  He  was  one  of  three  chief  leaders  in  the  choir,  first 
of  the  tabernacle,  and  afterwards  of  the  temple.  He  was  a 
prophet  as  well  as  a  poet  and  musician,  and  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah  is  placed  alongside  of  David  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Jews — "moreover,  Hezekiah  the  king,  and  the  princes 
commanded  the  Levites  to  sing  jiraise  unto  the  Lord,  with 
the  words  of  David  and  of  Asaph  the  seer. ' ' 

It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  Asaph  was  only  a 
composer  of  the  music  to  which  the  Psalms  bearing  his  name 
were  sung.  This  may  be;  it  is  plain  that  the  full  twelve 
Psalms  were  not  written  by  the  Asaph  of  David's  time,  as 
some  of  them  bear  marked  evidence  of  having  been  composed 
over  the  downfall  of  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  the  captivity 
in  Babylon.     The  apparent  discrepancy  between  the  title  and 


24  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  occasion  of  the  writing  of  these  Babylonish  Psalms  is  no 
doubt  explained  by  the  supposition  that  some  other  Asaph, 
who  was  among  the  captives,  was  their  author.  That  there 
was  an  Asaph  among  the  returned  captives,  we  learn  from 
Nehemiah  2:8.  This  Asaph,  in  the  land  of  the  captivity, 
was  held  in  esteem,  as  he  had  l)een  appointed  keeper  of  the 
king's  forest,  and  held  communications  with  Artaxerxes. 

In  the  Psalter,  Heman  and  Ethan  have  each  one  Psalm. 
These  two  were  both  Levites,  Ezrahites,  and  leaders  in  the 
choir  in  the  days  of  David  and  Solomon.  They  were  men 
so  distinguished  for  wisdom  that  they  were  among  the  speci- 
fied few  who  in  1  Kings  4  :  31,  are  said  to  have  excelled. 
Ethan  is  sometimes  called  Jeduthan. 

There  have  been  those  who  have  referred  the  Eighty- 
eighth  and  Eighty-ninth  Psalms  to  the  Heman  and  Ethan 
mentioned  in  1  Chron.  2:6,  as  the  grandsons  of  Judah  by  his 
daughter-in-law  Tamar.  If  this  conjecture  were  correct, 
these  Psalms  are  the  oldest  specimens  of  poetry  extant,  as 
these  two  persons  lived  nearly  two  hundred  years  before 
Moses. 

In  the  Arabic  the  Eighty-ninth  Psalm  is  credited  to 
Nathan,  the  Israelite. 

Korah  was  confederate  with  Dathan,  Abiram,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  of  the  principal  Levites  in  their  rebellion 
against  the  authority  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  with  them 
was  swallowed  up  in  the  cleaving  of  the  earth.  As  all  the 
children  of  Korah  did  not  perish  with  him,  it  is  thought  by 
Professor  Stuart  that  the  ' '  sons  of  Korah, ' '  to  whom  are 
attributed  ten  Psalms,  were  his  descendants.  In  the  days 
of  David,  the  Korahites  '  'were  over  the  work  of  the  service, 
keepers  of  the  gates  of  the  tabernacle;  and  their  fathers, 
being  over  the  host  of  the  Lord,  were  keepers  of  the  entry. ' ' 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH,  25 

The  Korahites  were  also  singers  in  the  temple  in  the  days  of 
Jehoshaphat.  The  authors  of  the  ten  Psalms  may  have  beeh 
some  of  these  who  served  in  the  tabernacle  or  sang  in  the 
temple. 

Many  of  the  Psalms  composed  during,  or  after  the  cap- 
tivity, are  variously  ascribed  to  Haggai,  Ezra,  Zechariah  and 
Nehemiah;  but  the  name  of  neither  of  these  persons  appears 
in  the  titles  of  what  are  regarded  the  captivity  Psalms. 

There  are  not  wanting  learned  men  who  bring  some  of 
the  Psalms  down  to  the  age  of  the  Maccabees.  Certain 
Jewish  authorities  include  in  this  period  all  of  the  Hallelujah 
Psalms.  By  Rudinger,  the  First,  Forty -fourth.  Forty-sixth, 
Forty-ninth  and  One  hundred  and  eighth;  by  Herman  Von 
Hardt,  the  One  hundred  and  nineteenth  ;  by  Venema,  the 
Eighty-fifth,  Ninety-third  and  One  hundred  and  eighth;  and 
by  others,  in  addition  to  these,  the  Sixtieth,  Seventy-fourth, 
Seventy-ninth,  Eightieth,  Eighty-third,  are  considered  Mac- 
cabman.  Hitzig  represented  few  Psalms  as  belonging  to  any 
earlier  date:  according  to  his  hypothesis  Psalms  First,  Second, 
Forty -fourth,  Sixtieth  and  the  last  three  books,  including  all 
from  the  Seventy-third  to  the  One  hundred  and  fiftieth  Psalm, 
were  of  Maccabsean  origin.  He  is  followed  in  his  opinion 
by  Lengerke  and  Justus  Olshausen. 

Westcott,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
thus  sums  up  the  ^objections  to  a  Maccabaean  authorship  in 
the  Psalter  :  "But  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  Psalms  in  ques- 
tion are  of  a  later  date  than  the  captivity,  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  they  are  Maccabtean.  On  the  contrary,  they  do 
not  contain  the  slightest  trace  of  those  internal  divisions  of 
the  people  which  were  the  marked  features  of  the  Maccabaean 
struffffle.  The  dangers  then  were  as  much  from  within  as 
without;  and  party  jealousies  brought  the  divine  cause  to  the 
greatest  peril.     It  is  incredible  that  a  series  of  Maccabaean 


26  David's  hakp  in  song  and  stoey. 

Psalms  should  contain  no  allusion  to  a  system  of  enforced 
idolatry,  or  to  a  temporizing  priesthood,  or  to  a  faithless 
multitude.  And  while  the  obscurity  that  hangs  over  the 
history  of  the  Persian  supremacy  from  the  time  of  Nehemiah 
to  the  invasion  of  Alexander,  makes  it  impossible  to  fix  with 
any  precision  a  date  to  which  the  Psalms  can  be  referred,  the 
one  glimpse  which  is  given  of  the  state  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
interval,  is  such  as  to  show  that  they  may  well  have  found 
some  sufBcient  occasion  in  the  wars  and  disorders  which  at- 
tended the  decline  of  the  Persian  power. ' ' 

It  may  be  stated  in  addition  to  this  that  the  closing  of 
the  Old  Testament  canon  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ, 
and  the  translation  of  the  Septuagint,  containing  the  entire 
Psalter,  in  the  third  century  before  the  Christian  era,  contra- 
dict the  supposition  of  any  Psalms  having  been  composed  as 
late  as  the  time  of  the  Maccabees. 

The  question  of  the  authorship  of  the  Psalms,  though 
perplexing,  does  not  affect  the  integrity,  inspiration  and  sub- 
limity of  the  Psalms  themselves.  The  one  hundred  and  fifty 
are  in  the  canon  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  "whether  David 
or  any  other  prophet  was  employed  as  the  instrument  of 
communicating  to  the  Church  such  and  such  a  particular 
Psalm,  is  a  question  which,  if  it  cannot  always  be  satisfac- 
torily answered,  need  not  disquiet  our  minds.  When  we 
discern  in  an  epistle  the  well-known  hand  of  a  friend,  we  are 
not  solicitous  about  the  pen  with  which  it  was  written. ' ' 

At  this  point  may  be  introduced  an  inquiry  of  no  little 
importance  :  What  was  the  design  of  the  Almighty  in  di- 
recting the  gradual  collection  of  the  Psalms  and  the  final 
fixing  of  them  in  the  canon  of  his  inspired  Word?  As  each 
of  the  other  books  of  the  Bible  is  only  a  selection,  and  has  for 
some  wise  purpose  been  compiled  from  much  more  that 
might  have  been  included,  we  must  conclude  that  there  was 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  27 

some  special  design  also  in  choosing  out  of  the  Jewish  Psal- 
mody of  more  than  one  thousand  years,  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  Psalms,  and  setting  them  as  a  part  of  a  complete  Bible. 
What  this  design  was,  does  not  appear  from  any  express 
declaration  in  the  Scriptures.  The  individual  and  general 
titles  of  the  Psalms  throw  no  light  on  the  subject,  for  they 
either  make  no  reference  to  it,  or  are  of  an  origin  that  can- 
not be  regarded  as  authoritative.  Nowhere  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament does  God  inform  us  why  he  had  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  Psalms  collected,  and  placed  where  they  are.  The  sup- 
position that  he  was  governed  by  a  desire  simply  to  provide 
a  Liturgical  Psalm-book  for  the  temple  worship  does  not 
harmonize  with  the  delay  of  a  complete  collection  until  within 
live  hundred  years  of  the  final  overthrow  of  the  temple  ser- 
vice, nor  with  the  fact  of  a  limited  selection  from  the  many 
inspired  songs  sung  from  time  to  time  by  the  Jewish  people. 

By  consulting  the  New  Testament,  we  conclude  that  the 
primary  design  of  the  present  selection  from  all  the  songs  of 
the  Hebrews  was,  that  these  specially  foreshadowed  the  com- 
ing of  Christ.  That  the  Psalms  are  prophetic  of  Christ  no 
good  commentator  pretends  to  deny.  That  Psalms  prophetic 
should  be  gathered  because  of  their  prophecies,  seems  just 
as  probable  as  that  the  writings  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
should  be  collected  and  made  canonical  for  theirs. 

Bishop  Horsley,  in  his  preface  to  the  book  of  Psalms, 
remarks  :  "  It  is  true  that  many  of  the  Psalms  are  com- 
memorative of  the  miraculous  interpositions  of  God  in  behalf 
of  his  chosen  people;  for,  indeed,  the  history  of  the  Jews  is 
a  fundamental  part  of  revealed  religion.  Many  were  prob- 
ably composed  upon  the  occasimi  of  remarkable  passages  in 
David's  life,  his  dangers,  his  afilictions,  his  deliverances. 
But  of  those  which  relate  to  the  public  history  of  the  natural 
Israel,  there  are  few  in  which  the  fortunes  of  the  mystical 


28  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Israel,  the  Christian  Church,  are  not  adumbrated;  and  of 
those  which  allude  to  the  life  of  David,  there  are  none  in 
which  the  Son  of  David  is  not  the  principal  and  immediate 
subject.  David's  complaints  against  his  enemies  are  Mes- 
siah's complaints,  first  of  the  unbelieving  Jews,  then  of  the 
heathen  persecutors  and  of  the  apostate  faction  in  the  latter 
ages.  David's  afflictions  are  the  Messiah's  sufferings;  Da- 
vid's penitential  supplications  are  the  supplications  of  the 
Messiah  in  agony;  David's  songs  of  triumph  and  thanksgiv- 
ing are  Messiah's  songs  of  triumph  and  thanksgiving  for  his 
victory  over  sin  and  death  and  hell.  In  a  word,  there  is  not 
a  page  of  this  book  of  Psalms  in  which  the  pious  reader  will 
not  find  his  Saviour,  if  he  reads  with  a  view  of  finding  him. ' ' 

That  the  Psalms  which  David  himself  wrote,  were  pro- 
phetic, David  himself  states  :  "  David  the  son  of  Jesse  said, 
and  the  man  who  was  raised  up  on  high,  the  anointed  of  the 
God  of  Jacob,  and  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel  said,  The  Spirit 
of  Jehovah  speaks  by  me,  and  his  word  was  on  my  tongue. ' ' 

In  the  New  Testament  the  principal  use  made  of  the 
Psalter  is  of  it  as  a  collection  of  prophecies.  The  Second, 
Eighth,  Sixteenth,  Eighteenth,  Nineteenth,  Twenty-second, 
Fortieth,  Forty-first,  Forty-fourth,  Forty-fifth,  Sixty-eighth, 
Sixty-ninth,  Seventy- third.  Ninety-first,  Ninety-fifth,  One 
hundred  and  tenth,  One  hundred  and  seventeenth,  One  hun- 
dred and  eighteenth  and  One  hundred  and  thirty-second  are 
expressly  quoted  from  as  containing  })rophecies  of  Christ  in 
his  life,  death  and  exaltation.  Christ  himself  referred  to 
the  Psalms  as  prophecies.  After  his  resurrection  he  ap- 
peared to  his  disciples  and  in  the  course  of  his  conversation 
with  them  said,  "These  are  the  words  which  I  spake  unto 
you  while  I  was  yet  with  you,  that  all  things  must  be  ful- 
filled which  were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the 
prophets,  and  in  the  Pmlms  concerning  me.'''' 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  29 

That  the  projjhecies  concerning  the  Messiah  should  be 
composed  in  the  form  of  Psalms  or  songs,  and  be  sung  in 
the  stated  services  of  the  Jewish  Church,  does  not  seem 
strange.  There  is  nothing  in  the  material  of  a  prophecy 
that  need  render  it  unfit  for  psalmody;  and  there  is  a  peculiar 
beauty  and  appropriateness  in  making  the  Psalms  of  a  great 
people  reflect  the  glories  of  an  approaching  Saviour. 

It  seems  probable  that  in  early  days  the  terms  to  desig- 
nate prophecies  and  psalms  were  synonymous.  The  students 
whom  Saul  met  after  leaving  Samuel,  are  called  '  'prophets, ' ' 
and  they  are  said  to  have  been  prophesying  "with  a  psaltery, 
and  a  tabret,  and  a  pipe,  and  a  harp;"  by  which  we  under- 
stand that  they  were  psalming  their  prophecies. 

In  1  Chron.  25:2,  Jeduthan  is  represented  as  one  who 
' '  prophesied  iiyith  a  harp,  to  give  thanks  and  to  praise  the 
Lord. "  "  Moreover,  David  and  the  captains  of  the  host 
separated  to  the  service  of  the  sons  of  Asaph,  and  of  Heman, 
and  of  Jeduthan,  who  should  prophesy/  with  harps,  with  psal- 
teries, and  with  cymbals. ' ' 

That  God  also  designed  the  Psalter  as  a  book  of  praise 
for  his  Church  has  been  a  commonly-received  opinion,  both 
in  the  earlier  and  later  days  of  the  New  Testament  Church. 
Without  such  a  design  could  not  be  well  explained  the  adapt- 
ability of  the  Psalms  for  psalmody,  their  use  by  Christ  and 
his  disciples,  and  their  influence  in  the  sacred  music  of  God's 
people  in  every  age.  At  whatever  time  the  general  title  of 
the  book  was  given,  the  Psalter  was  regarded  as  a  book  for 
praise,  for  the  "  Schillim  "  of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  "Psal- 
mor "  and  "  Psalterion  "  of  the  Septuagint  Greek,  were 
given  to  designate  the  Psalms  as  material  to  be  sung  in  di- 
vine worship,  rather  than  as  a  collection  of  prophecies,  or  of 
divine  precepts. 

Although  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  make  but  little 


30  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

mention  of  the  matter  of  sacred  melodies,  yet,  in  what  they 
do  say,  the  Psalms  of  David  are  clearly  recognized  as  com- 
mended as  proper  songs  for  the  edifying  and  comforting  of 
God's  people.  As  in  Eph.  5:19:  "Speaking  to  your- 
selves in  Psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  singing  and 
making  melody  in  your  hearts  "  ;  and  in  Col.  3  :  16:  "  Let 
the  word  of  God  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all  wisdom  ;  teach- 
ing and  admonishing  one  another  in  Psalms  and  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts  unto  the 
Lord  "  ;  and  in  James  5  :  13  :  "Is  any  merry?  Let  him 
sing  Psalms." 

Over  the  character  of  Hebrew  poetry  hangs  a  cloud 
whose  gloom  eminent  critics  for  centuries  have  vexed  them- 
selves to  remove.  That  the  Psalms,  the  Book  of  Job  and 
other  parts  of  the  Scriptures  are  sublimely  poetic,  all  fully 
agree.  That  poetry,  of  whether  sacred  or  secular,  should 
assume  a  measure  and  find  its  utterance  in  numljers,  all  fully 
accord  as  an  essential  in  its  composition.  What  was  the 
measure  ?  Was  there  any  form  of  metre  ?  These  are  the 
mysterious  problems  which  the  learned  have  labored  to  solve. 

The  rules  regulating  the  composition  of  Hebrew  poetry 
have  been  lost,  and  to  restore  them  at  this  date  is  as  difficult 
as  to  transfer  ourselves  back  to  the  times  and  into  the  cir- 
cumstances when  the  poems  of  the  Bible  were  recorded,  and 
created  anew  the  numbers  of  their  inditing.  There  was  a 
period  when  there  were  no  rules  for  the  poet ;  all  that  he 
had,  in  common  with  the  poets  of  his  own  times,  and  of  all 
times,  was  the  genius  and  inspiration  that  give  birth  to 
poetic  sentiment.  Having  no  mould  for  his  utterance,  the 
poet  must  create  one  for  himself.  The  poems  of  Homer 
and  of  the  Bible  were  probably  the  first  of  their  kind,  com- 
posed at  a  time  when  the  measures,  like  the  poet  himself, 
were  born.     Poetic  genius,  when  creating,  is  no  more  likely 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  31 

to  create  the  same  measures  in  the  utterances  of  two  indi- 
viduals, or  in  two  localities,  or  in  two  eras,  than  it  is  to 
create  sameness  of  sentiment.  Originality  must  be  peculiar 
to  every  composer  in  the  first  days  of  poesy.  For  this  reason, 
Homer  might  write  in  Greece,  and  Solomon  at  the  same  time 
in  Jerusalem,  and  no  known  rules  guide  them,  and  so  their 
poetry  would  differ  as  widely  in  the  numbers  as  in  the 
sentiment.  For  the  same  reason  the  numbers  of  modern 
tunes  and  those  of  the  tunes  of  the  Hebrew  poets  would 
bear  no  resemblance  to  one  another.  To  trace  the  measures 
of  the  Psalms  in  the  Iliad  or  Odyssey,  or  to  seek  their  dis- 
covery in  the  rules  of  modern  poetry  and  rhetoric,  assumes 
the  poets  to  have  had  common  rules,  and  to  have  written 
according  to  them.  Had  the  Psalms  themselves  been  totally 
lost,  how  foolish  to  attempt  to  resurrect  their  sentiments  by 
taking  the  Iliad  or  Paradise  Lost  as  a  starting  point !  To 
restore  lost  sentiment  is  to  create  it ;  to  restore  lost  meas- 
ures is  to  create  them. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  many  of  the  later  Psalms 
were  composed  upon  some  model ;  but  this  model  was  in 
earlier  Psalms,  or  earlier  poems,  the  rules  of  whose  compos- 
ing are  lost,  so  that  these  possess  the  same  difficulty  as 
though  written  when  rules  were  unknown. 

That  there  should  be  some  resemblance  between  the 
utterance  of  the  Psalms  and  the  works  of  Homer,  Hesiod  or 
Pindar  is  natural.  All  poems,  however  widely  they  may 
differ  in  their  origin,  or  their  eras,  possess  resemblances. 
Resemblances  in  poetry  are  inborn  ;  hence  in  any  age,  or 
any  land,  we  can,  as  by  instinct,  detect  a  poem,  though 
totally  ignorant  of  its  general  construction. 

But  resemblances  do  not  argue  even  the  existence  of  rules. 

The  Psalms,  like  the  Iliad,  were  written  too  soon  for 
rhyme.     Ehyme  was  neither  born  nor  created,  nor  discov- 


32  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

ered ;  it  was  invented.  It  is  mechanical,  and  must  be 
classed  with  the  locomotive  and  the  reaper,  and  not  with  the 
offspring  of  poetic  inspiration.  He  who  invented  rhrjme 
invented  manacles  for  the  hands  that  should  freely  guide  the 
pen.  Still  a  history  of  the  Psalms  would  not  be  complete 
without  certain  spectral  theories  concerning  the  style  of  their 
poetry.  These,  if  they  will  throw  no  light  into  dark  places, 
will  be  useful  in  summing  up  the  estimation  in  which  the 
Psalms  have  been  held,  and  the  relative  degree  of  attention 
and  investigation  they  have  attracted. 

Some  of  the  early  writers  speak  with  as  much  confidence 
upon  the  measures  of  the  Psalms  as  though  the  Hebrew 
system  of  poetic  numbers  was  fully  known  in  their  times. 
Josephus  aflarms  that  the  Songs  of  Moses,  the  Ninetieth 
Psalm  among  them,  were  composed  in  the  Greek  heroic 
verse,  and  that  David  composed  odes  and  hymns  in  penta- 
meters and  trimeters — verses  of  five  and  three  feet.  Origrin 
and  Eusebius  followed  his  opinion.  Eusebius  states  that 
the  One  hundred  and  nineteenth  Psalm  was  composed  in 
heroic  verse  of  sixteen  syllables.  Julian,  in  reply  to 
Eusebius,  undertakes  to  prove  that  the  Hebrews  had  no 
culture,  and  that  their  poetry,  like  the  poetry  of  all  un- 
civilized nations,  was  rude.  Jerome  fancied  he  could  trace 
in  the  Psalms  the  iambic,  alcaic  and  saphic  verses  of  Horace, 
Pindar,  Alcaceus  and  Sappho.  Gregory,  of  Nyssa,  denies 
the  existence  of  classic  metres  in  the  Psalms.  Augustine 
favored  the  view  that  they  were  in  metre,  and  Scaliger  re- 
sponds to  him  by  saying  that  the  poetic  books  of  the  Bible 
were  mostly  composed  in  prose,  only  animated  by  a  poetic 
spirit,  the  Song  of  Moses,  the  Proverbs  and  Job  being  the 
onl}'-  exceptions.  Gerhard  Vossius  argued  for  a  rhythm,  bat 
no  metre,  while  Gomarus,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  con- 
tended for  both  rhythm  and  meters.     Marcus  Meibomius, 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  33 

toward  the  close  of  the  same  century,  professed  to  have  dis- 
covered the  lost  system  of  Hebrew  metres,  and  proposed 
to  restore  the  whole  Scriptures  to  their  original  state,  pro- 
vided six  thousand  men  would  contribute  each  £5  sterling  for 
a  copy  of  his  book.  Failing  in  his  scheme,  he  published  some 
specimens  of  restored  poems.  The  whole  book  of  Psalms, 
according  to  his  view,  was  w^ritten  in  distichs,  and  were  in- 
tended to  be  sung  by  two  choirs. 

Sir  W.  Jones  attempted  to  apply  the  Arabic  meters  to 
the  Psalms,  but  succeeded  in  establishing  no  system.  M. 
de  Lacy,  the  French  Orientalist,  Herder  and  other  eminent 
German  writers  believed  that  the  Psalms  had  no  proper 
meter,  consisting  of  cadences  and  measured  syllables,  but 
"  simply  of  periods  artificially  constructed  and  balanced, 
resembling  a  well-trellessed  garland  or  a  row  of  pearls  ar- 
ranged in  just  proportions."  Dr.  Kitto  thought  the  ancient 
Hebrews  had  too  much  simple  majesty  and  too  much  gravity 
for  the  jingling  play  of  rhyme.  "  Rh3^me  is  indeed  entirely 
foreign  to  the  genius  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  poetry  ;  and 
although  a  rhyme  may  here  and  there  be  met  with,  it  may 
safel}^  be  presumed  to  be  the  result  of  accident  rather  than 
design,  or  any  part  of  poetical  contrivance.  It  is  of  more 
consequence  to  notice  this,  because  later  Hebrew  poetry  has 
both  rhythm  and  metre. ' ' 

Says  Bishop  Horsley  : — "  The  Psalms  are  all  poems  of  a  lyric  kind — 
that  is,  adapted  to  music,  but  with  great  variety  in  the  style  of  the  com- 
position. Some  are  simply  odes — some  are  of  the  kind  called  eliagici 
which  are  pathetic  compositions  upon  mournful  subjects  ;  some  are 
ethic,  delivering  grave  maxims  of  life  or  the  precepts  of  religion,  in 
solemn,  but  for  the  most  part,  simple  strains  ;  some  are  enigmatic,  de- 
livering the  doctrines  of  religion  in  enigmas  contributed  to  strike  the 
imagination  forcibly,  and  yet  easy  to  be  understood.  In  all  these  the 
author  delivers  the  whole  matter  in  his  own  person.  But  a  very  great, 
I  believe  the  far  greater,  part  are  a  sort  of  dramatic  ode,  consisting  of 
dialogues  between  persons  sustaining  certain  characters.     In  these  dia- 


34  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

logue  Psalms,  the  persons  are  frequently  the  Psalmist  himself,  or  the 
chorus  of  Priests  and  Levites,  or  the  leader  of  the  Levitical  Band,  open- 
ing the  ode  with  a  proem,  declarative  of  the  subject,  and  very  often 
closing  the  whole  with  a  solemn  admonition  drawn  from  what  the  other 
persons  say ;  the  other  persons  are  Jehovah,  sometimes  as  one,  some- 
times as  another,  of  the  three  persons ;  Christ,  in  his  incarnate  state, 
sometimes  before,  sometimes  after  his  resun-ection  ;  the  human  soul  of 
Christ  as  distinguished  from  the  divine  essence.  Christ,  in  his  incarnate 
state,  is  personified  sometimes  as  a  priest,  sometimes  as  a  king,  and 
sometimes  as  a  conquerer." 

A  novelty  in  the  Psalms  in  the  Hebrew,  which  is  not 
seen  in  our  English  Bible,  is  in  the  acrostic  or  alphabetical 
Psalms.  These  are  consitlered  by  Bishop  Lowth  as  one  of 
the  leading  features  in  the  effusions  of  Hebrew  music.  In 
these  Psalms,  the  number,  order  of  the  lines,  or  system  of 
lines  and  periods  are  regulated  by  the  number  and  order  of 
the  twenty-two  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet;  each  letter 
beginning  a  line  or  stanza.  It  is  supposed  that  poems  among 
the  Hebrews  were  written  in  this  method  to  aid  the  memory 
in  committing  and  retainino;  them.  It  bears  somethino-  of 
the  same  relation  to  poetry  as  does  the  rhyme  of  later  times, 
and  no  doubt  answered  much  the  same  purpose. 

The  only  evidence  of  the  feature  of  Hebrew  poetry  that 
presents  itself  in  the  English  Bible,  is  in  the  One  hundred 
and  nineteenth  Psalm,  where  the  English  spelling  and  naming 
of  the  Hebrew  characters  occur  at  regular  intervals  through 
the  Psalm,  and  which  serve  no  other  end  than  to  mystify  the 
mass  of  readers,  and  probably  to  divide  the  Psalm  into  por- 
tions of  convenient  lensrth  to  be  sunof. 

Of  the  multitude  of  versifyers  of  the  Psalms  only  two 
have  attempted  to  transfer  into  English  metre  the  acros- 
ticisms  of  the  alphabetical  Psalms.  These  are  Montagu  and 
Burges. 

The  following  specimen  from  Montagu,  will  give  the 
reader  some  idea  of  the  Hebrew  acrostics: 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  35 

Psalm  100. 

All  ye  lands  now  come  in  throng, 

Be  ye  joyful  in  the  Lord: 

Come  before  him  with  a  song, 

Do  him  homage  in  accord. 

Earth  !  all  nations  !  Him  adore. 

Fear  and  serve  him  evermore. 

Qod  provides  for  all  our  needs; 

He  'twas  made  us  ;  his  we  are  ; 

In  his  pastures,  Jah  us  feeds, 

Keeps  us  with  a  Shepherd's  care, 

Laud  to  him  raise  every  voice; 

Mirthful  in  the  Lord  rejoice. 

Now  him  in  his  temple  sue, 

Offer  up  your  thanks  and  praise  f 

Pay  him  your  oblation  due, 

Quicken  ye,  your  voices  raise, 

Raising  high,  his  praises  frame; 

Singing,  bless  his  holy  name. 

Truth  and  mercy  are  the  Lord's 

Unto  everlastingness. 

Vast  hie  works  are,  wise  his  words, 

Xcellent.     Him  all  confess. 

Yield  him  homage  and  adore; 

Zealous  serve  him  evermore. 
Concerning  the  use  of  the  Psalms  in  the  early  Jewish 
Church,  we  know  little  more  than  that  they  were  sung. 
Whether  they  were  sung  in  family  worship,  or  sung  by  the 
common  people,  we  can  only  conjecture,  as  the  specialties  of 
the  home  devotions  of  Israel  are  not  given  to  us  either  in  the 
Old  Testament  or  at  the  hand  of  any  uninspired  chronicler. 
Of  the  Psalm-singing  in  the  Tabernacle  and  Temple  and 
on  ffreat  festive  occasions  there  are  few  items  recorded,  and 
those  few  refer  mostly  to  the  manner  of  the  Jewish  Psalmody 
rather  than  to  the  matter  of  it.  Judging  from  what  we 
know,  and  from  the  structure  of  the  several  Psalms,  there  is 
warrant  for  saying  that  the  Psalms  we  now  have  in  the 
Psalter  are  given  us,  not  simply  as  the  oii'spring  of  inspiration, 
l)ut  of  great  and  special  occasions  for  which  they  were  com- 


36  David's  harp  in  song  and  story, 

posed.  Could  we  have  a  full  history  of  the  inditing  of  each 
Psalm,  these  records  "would  no  doubt  give  us  an  insight  into 
the  great  occasions  and  remarkable  vicissitudes  of  the  Hebrew 
nations. 

May  not  our  Psalter  be  composed  only  of  the  gems  of 
the  Hebrew  Psalm-books,  thrown  up  into  view  and  use  by 
the  extraordinary  experiences  of  a  thousand  years  ? 

Whilst  reliable  records  give  us  little  insight  into  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  Psalms  in  the  services  of  the  Jewish  Church, 
tradition  comes  to  our  assistance.  In  the  work  of  Light- 
foot  on  the  Temple  Service,  in  Brown's  Jewish  Antiquities 
and  other  similar  works  are  given  what  are  reputed  to  be 
the  customs  of  the  Jews  at  or  about  the  time  of  Christ. 
The  Hebrew  worship  was  liturgical,  and  the  Book  of  Order 
contained  certain  Psalms  arranged  as  stated  songs  for  cer- 
tain occasions,  just  as  we  now  see  in  the  liturgies  of  the 
Greek,  Eoman  and  English  churches. 

In  connection  with  the  morning  service  of  the  Temple, 
a  stated  Psalm  was  sung  for  each  day  of  the  week.  On  the 
first  day  : 

Psalm  24  was  sung,  because,  as  the  gamara  states,  it 
celebrates  the  creating  of  the  world  by  the  Lord  upon  the 
first  day  of  the  week.  "The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the 
fullness  thereof  :   the  world  and  all  that  dwell  therein,"  etc. 

Psalm  48  was  sung  on  the  second  day  of  the  week, 
because  the  Lord  on  this  day  divided  the  waters  and 
reigned  over  them. 

Psalm  82  was  sung,  because  on  this  day  the  earth 
appeared,  on  which  were  judges  and  judging,  and  by  his 
wisdom  he  established  the  world. 

Psalm  94  was  sung  on  the  fourth  day,  because  God 
on  it  made  the  sun  and  moon  and  stai's,  and  will  be  avenged 
on  them  that  worship  them. 


J 


THE  FSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  37 

Psalm  81  was  sung  on  the  fifth  day,  because  of  the 
variety  of  creatures  made  on  that  day  to  praise  God's  name. 

Psalm  93  was  sung  on  the  sixth  day,  because  the  Lord 
finished  his  work  by  making  man,  who  can  give  glory  to  the 
Creator. 

Psalm  92  was  sung  on  the  seventh  day.  It  is  entitled 
a  Psalm  for  the  Sabljath. 

No  mention  is  made  by  tradition  of  what  Psalms  were 
sung  during  each  day  and  at  evening  service.  According 
to  some  authorities,  Psalms  9,  104,  118  were  set  apart 
for  Sabbath  Psalmody.  These  Psalms,  when  sung,  were 
divided  into  three  parts,  with  pauses  between  the  parts, 
where  the  priests  could  blow  their  ordinary  blasts,  and  the 
people  worship.  Thus,  in  the  Twenty-fourth  Psalm,  the 
whole  band  probably  sang  verses  first  and  second:  "The 
earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness  thereof  :  the  world  and 
they  that  dwell  therein,"  etc.  Here,  in  the  pause,  the 
trumpets  sounded,  and  the  people  worshipped.  The  second 
division  begins  with  one-half  the  choir  asking  in  the  third 
verse  :  "  Who  shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord?  "  etc., 
and  the  other  half  answers  in  verses  4,  5,  6,  "He  that 
hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart, ' '  etc.  Here  the  whole 
band  sound  ' '  Selah, ' '  and  the  second  pause  begins.  The 
third  division  begins  with  one-half  of  the  band  singing  : 
"  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates,  and  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye 
everlasting  doors,  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in." 
The  other  half  responds  :  ' '  Who  is  this  King  of  glory  ?  ' ' 
The  first  again  answers  :  ' '  The  Lord  strong  and  mighty, 
the  Lord  mighty  in  battle,"  etc.  The  second  half  again 
asks  in  the  tenth  verse:  "Who  is  this  King  of  glory?" 
The  first  half  again  reply  :  ' '  The  Lord  of  hosts,  he  is  the 
King  of  glory  "  :  when  the  w^hole  band  ends  the  Psalm  by 
soundino-  ' '  Selah. ' ' 


^  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

The  singing  of  the  Psalms  was  not  confined  to  the  regu- 
lar services  of  the  Temple, 

Dr.  Loroth  supposes  that  the  Hundred  and  thirt}^- 
fourth  Psalm  was  sung  by  the  two  divisions  of  those  who 
watched  the  Temple  by  night,  and  sung  with  such  intervals 
as  to  indicate  the  hours  of  the  night.  Tholuck  thus  trans- 
lates and  divides  this  Psalm  : 

A  Song  from  the  Higher  Choir. 

THE   COMING   TEMPLE  GUARD. 

1.  Behold,  bless  ye  the  Lord, 

All  ye  the  servants  of  the  Lord, 

Which  by  night  stand  in  the  house  of  the  Lord. 

2.  Lift  up  your  hands  to  the  sanctuary. 
And  bless  the  Lord. 

THE   RETIRING   TEMPLE   GUARD. 

3.  The  Lord  that  made  heaven  and  earth, 
Bless  thee  out  of  Zion. 

Some  Psalms  were  no  doubt  considered  as  especially 
appropriate  for  occasions  of  war,  and  were  sung  in  march  or 
at  the  attack.  In  the  days  of  the  Maccabees  the  Psalms 
were  sung  in  the  procession  of  the  }:)eople,  who  bore  branches 
and  the  boughs  of  firs  and  palms  in  their  hands  in  token  of 
triumph.  The  young  warriors  under  Judas  Maccabees 
sang  them  at  the  siege  of  Grazara  ;  and  Judas  himself  '  'sung 
Psalms  with  a  loud  voice,"  as  he  and  his  company  charged 
against  the  soldiers  of  Gorgias,  the  Governor  of  Idumea. 
From  2  Chron.,  20:  21,  we  learn  that  as  early  as  the  days  of 
Jehoshaphat,  the  Psalms  were  sung  in  battle.  Jehoshaphat, 
when  he  had  gone  forth  against  Moab  and  Ammon,  appointed 
singers  unto  the  Lord,  who  should  praise  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  as  they  went  out  before  the  army,  and  to  say, 
" Praise  the  Lord  ;  for  His  mercy  endureth  forever."  It 
was  while  this  martial  choir  was  singing  the  One  hundred 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  39 

and  thirty- sixth  Psalm  that  the  Lord  sent  ambnshments 
against  the  enemy  and  they  were  smitten. ' '  After  the 
victory,  the  whole  army,  with  Jehoshaphat  in  the  front, 
marched  in  a  triumphal  procession  to  the  house  of  the  Lord, 
singing  to  the  music  of  their  harps  and  psalteries. 

Psalm-singing  was  a  prominent  feature  in  the  worship 
of  the  great  Jehovah  festivals.  The  first  great  festive  oc- 
casion was  the  Passover,  fixed  for  the  appearance  of  the 
new  moon  in  the  Jewish  first  month,  or  our  month  of  March. 

In  the  original  institution  of  the  Passover,  each  family 
was  to  have  a  lamb  for  sacrifice.  But  in  the  time  of  our 
Saviour  this  rule  was  so  modified  as  to  allow  a  lamb  for  a 
group,  or  society  of  not  less  than  ten.  These  groups  were 
called  in  Hebrew  Hebure,  and  were  generally  made  up  four 
days  before  the  day  of  the  Passover.  It  was  while  these 
companies  were  offering  their  lambs  in  the  court  of  the 
priest,  about  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  that  the  Levites 
sang  the  Egj^ptian  Hallel,  comprising  Psaims  One  hundred 
and  thirteenth,  One  hundred  and  fourteenth,  One  hundred 
and  fifteenth.  One  hundred  and  sixteenth.  One  hundred  and 
seventeenth.  One  hundred  and  eighteenth.  The  companies 
entered  the  court  in  three  divisions,  hence  the  Hallel  was 
besfun  three  times,  and  almost  finished  a  third  time  when  the 
last  company  completed  its  offering.  The  Egyptian  Hallel 
was  so  called  from  its  being  a  Hallelujah  in  remembrance  of 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt.  Sometimes  it  was  called  the 
Lesser  Hallel  to  distinguish  it  from  the  greater  Hallel  sung 
at  a  later  period  on  passover  occasions. 

On  the  evening  of  the  14th  of  the  month,  or,  accord- 
ing to  Jewish  reckoning,  on  the  beginning  of  the  loth  day, 
the  several  companies  gathered  around  their  tables  to  eat  the 
paschal  lambs.  During  the  continuance  of  the  meal  the  Jews 
were  to  drink  four  cups  of  mingled  wine  and  water.     Be- 


40  David's  harp  in  song  and  stoky. 

tween  the  drinking  of  the  first  and  second  cup,  there  was  to 
be,  among  other  things,  an  explanation  of  the  passover  by 
the  presiding  oflicers.  This  was  generally  done  by  taking 
the  Hallel  Psalms  and  commenting  on  a  part  of  them.  The 
fourth  cup  of  wine  was  called  the  Hallel  cup  because  the 
President  finished  with  it  his  reading  of  the  Hallel  Psalms, 
begun  over  the  second  cup.  It  is  supposed  that  the  cup 
Christ  blessed  and  gave  to  his  disciples  was  the  third  of  the 
evening,  and  that  it  was  the  concluding  part  of  the  Hallel 
Psalms  that  he  and  his  disciples  sang  before  retiring  to  the 
INIount  of  Olives. 

After  the  fourth,  or  Hallel  cup,  the  usual  custom  on 
these  festive  occasions  was  to  close  the  ceremonies  for  the 
evening.  But  there  was  a  tradition  that  a  fiJth  cup  might 
be  taken  by  such  as  felt  so  disposed,  provided  they  would 
repeat  the  great  Hallel  over  it.  There  is  a  division  of 
opinion  as  to  what  constituted  the  Great  Hallel.  Eabbi 
Judah  says  it  was  Psalm  One  hundred  and  thirty-six  ;  Rabbi 
Johanan,  that  it  was  from  One  hundred  and  twenty  to  One 
hundred  and  thirty-seventh  Psalm  ;  Eabbi  Ahabar  Jacol), 
that  it  was  from  Psalm  One  hundred  and  thirty-fifth,  fourth 
verse,  to  Psalm  One  hundred  and  thirty-seventh. 

In  the  treatise,  Erachin,  to  the  above  Psalms,  the  One 
hundred  and  fifth  is  added  as  part  of  the  great  Hallel. 
The  second  of  the  three  great  Jewish  festivals  was  the 
feast  of  Pentecost — sometimes  called  the  feast  of  "Weeks, 
sometimes  the  feast  of  Harvest,  sometimes  the  day  of 
the  first  fruits.  The  time  of  the  observance  was  on  the 
fiftieth  day  after  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  or 
sometimes  in  the  month  of  May.  Brown,  in  his  Anti(|ui- 
ties  of  the  Jews,  thus  describes  the  gathering  of  the  Jews 
on  this  occasion,  and  their  singing  the  One  hundred  and 
twenty-second   Psalm.     They    tell    us   that    all    the    males 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CIIUIICH,  41 

v.ithin  the  limits  of  the  several  districts  throughout  the 
lanu,  having  met  at  the  principal  cities  in  these  districts, 
with  a  view  of  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  the  feast  of  Pente- 
cost, lodged  in  the  streets  during  the  night,  for  fear  of  pol- 
lution ;  and,  as  the  air  was  mild,  they  could  do  it  without 
injury  to  their  health  ;  that  on  the  morning  of  the  following 
day,  the  President  of  each  company  called  them  betimes, 
"  Arise,  and  let  us  go  up  to  Zion,  to  the  Lord,  thy  God  ;  " 
that  they  set  out  on  their  journey,  preceded  by  a  bullock, 
intended  for  the  sacrifice,  whose  horns  were  gilded  (like  that 
afterward  vowed  by  Diomed  to  Pallers,  and  of  Nestor  to 
Minerva)  ;  and  whose  head  was  decorated  with  a  garland  of 
olive  branches  ;  and  that  a  person  playing  on  a  pipe  went 
also  before  them,  to  cheer  them  on  their  journey,  whilst 
bursts  of  religious  fervor  were  frequently  heard  by  the 
people,  exclaiming  as  in  Psalm  One  hundred  and  twenty-two, 
"I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  let  us  go  up  to  the  house 
of  the  Lord."  Delightful,  indeed,  must  the  sight  have  been 
to  observe  the  companies  coming  from  the  different  districts 
of  the  land  to  Jerusalem,  as  to  a  common  center,  to  worship 
God.  We  are  informed,  that  to  avoid  fatigue,  they  traveled 
only  two  parts  of  the  day,  and  that  when  they  came  near  the 
city  they  sent  a  messenger  to  announce  their  approach  ;  on 
which,  some  of  the  chiefs  of  the  priesthood  went  out  to 
meet  them.  Their  entry  into  the  city  was  exceedingly 
picturesque.  Each  carried  his  basket  of  w^heat,  grapes,  figs, 
apricots,  olives  or  dates.  The  baskets  of  the  rich  were  of 
gold  or  silver,  and  those  of  the  poor  were  of  wicker  work, 
fancifully  ornamented  with  flowers.  As  they  entered  the 
city  they  joyfully  exclaimed,  '  Our  feet  shall  stand  within 
thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem  ;  '  and  all  the  artificers  in  their 
shops  rose  as  they  passed  and  bade  them  welcome.  Indeed 
the  whole  of  Psalm  One  hundred  and  twenty-two  receives 


42  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

an  additional  beauty  if  we  consider  it  as  expressive  of  what 
would  naturally  happen  on  this  occasion. 

"Let  us  suppose  the  several  tribes  to  be  near  the  walls 
of  the  city  and  preparing  to  enter  it,  headed  by  the  several 
chiefs  of  the  priesthood:  what  was  more  natural  for  them  to 
say  in  holy  exultation,  as  in  verses  1,  2,  'I  was  glad  when 
they  said  unto  me,  Let  us  go  up  into  the  house  of  the  Lord. 
Our  feet  shall  stand  within  thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem. '  Hav- 
ing entered  the  city  and  seen  the  private  and  public  build- 
ings, which  to  many  of  them  would  be  new  and  wonderful, 
they  would  naturally  exclaim,  as  in  verses  3,  4,  5,  '  Jeru- 
salem is  builded  as  a  city  that  is  compact  together,  whither 
the  tribes  go  up,  the  tribes  of  the  Lord  unto  the  testimony 
of  Israel,  to  give  thanks  unto  the  name  of  the  Lord;  for 
there  are  set  thrones  of  judgment,  the  thrones  of  the  house 
of  David. '  The  very  welcome  that  was  given  to  them  as 
they  passed,  by  the  artificers  and  other  inhabitants,  from  the 
doors  of  their  shops,  and  the  tops  of  their  houses,  seemed  to 
be  contained  in  verse  6,  'Pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem. ' 
To  which  the  tribes  would  naturally  reply,  'They  shall 
prosper  that  love  thee.  Peace  be  within  thy  walls,  and  pros- 
perity within  thy  palaces.  For  my  brethren  and  compan- 
ions' sakes,  I  will  now  say.  Peace  be  within  thee.  Because 
of  the  house  of  the  Lord  our  God,  I  will  seek  thy  good. ' 
Thus  did  they  proceed  with  the  sound  of  music  to  the  moun- 
tain on  which  the  temple  stood  ;  at  the  foot  of  which  every 
individual,  of  whatever  rank,  took  his  basket  on  his  shoul- 
der and  repeated  as  he  ascended,  the  whole  of  the  One  hun- 
dred and  fiftieth  Psalm,  probably  in  a  kind  of  musical  ca- 
dence, to  make  the  procession  more  solemn  and  impressive. 
When  come  into  the  court  of  the  priests,  the  band  of  the 
temple  sang  the  Thirtieth  Psalm,  and  the  president  of  the 
company,  with  his  basket  on  his  shoulder,  in  the  name  of  the 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  43 

rest,  repeated  the  words  which  God  had  enjoined  on  the  oc- 
casion, as  we  have  already  tianscribed  them  from  Deut.  26: 
3-10,  '  I  profess  this  day,'  etc.;  a  priest  in  the  meantime 
putting  his  hand  under  the  president's  basket  and  waving  it 
before  the  Lord. ' ' 

During  the  days  of  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  the  Psalms 
were  frequently  sung,  but  what  Psalms  we  are  not  informed 
till  the  eighth  and  last  day  of  the  festivities.  The  Psalms 
sung  on  this  day  were  the  Egyptian  Hal  lei,  already  men- 
tioned, in  the  celebration  of  the  Passover. 

The  third  of  the  three  principal  Jewish  festivals  was  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles,  which  came  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
month  of  Tizri,  or  September.  In  the  original  appointment 
on  the  occasion  of  this  feast,  the  people  were  required  to 
dwell  in  booths  ;  but  in  the  time  of  Christ  the  Pharisees  so 
explained  the  commandments  as  to  establish  the  custom  of 
bearing  branches  in  the  hands  rather  than  dwelling  in  booths. 
Accordingly  the  first  thing  the  Jews  did  when  the  feast  be- 
gan, was  to  supply  themselves  with  branches  of  the  palm 
and  myrtle,  and  then  to  resort  to  a  place  called  Mutsa^  a 
short  distance  below  Jerusalem,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Kid- 
ron,  for  willow  branches.  Each  person  procured  two  willow 
branches;  one  to  place  on  the  altar,  and  the  other  to  be  bound 
by  means  of  a  golden,  or  silver  cord,  or  by  a  twig,  with  the 
branches  of  palm  and  myrtle.  This  last  was  called  the  luleb, 
which  was  to  be  carried  during  the  whole  of  the  first  day  of 
the  feast. 

During  the  days  of  the  feast,  the  ordinary  Psalms  for 
the  week  were  dispensed  with  and  the  Egyptian  Hallel  sung: 
' '  that  being  renewed  daily, ' '  as  the  Jerusalem  Targum  ex- 
presses it,  '  'because  their  lulebs  were  renewed  daily. ' '  Dur- 
ing the  performing  of  the  psalmody  by  the  band  the  crowds 
were  accustomed  to  express  the  ardor  of  their  feelings  by 
outward  tokens.  When  the  beginning  of  the  118th  Psalm 
was  sung,  "  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,"  they  shook  the 
branches  they  held  in  their  hands.  The  same  thing  was 
done  when  the  25th  verse  was  repeated  ;  and  at  the  conclud- 
ing verse,  the  whole  multitude  joined  in  shaking  their  lulebs 
"on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  upwards  and  downwards. " 


44  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

During  the  sacrifices  of  the  first  day  of  the  Feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles, the  Levitical  band  sang  the  105th  Psalm.  After 
the  completion  of  the  sacrifices,  and  before  the  Jews  left  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord's  house,  they  went  in  procession  round 
the  altar,  setting  each  one  his  branch  against  it,  and  re- 
peating Psalm  118:25,  "Save  now,  1  beseech  thee,  O  Lord; 
O  Lord,  I  beseech  thee,  send  now  prosperity. ' '  As  they 
passed  through  the  gates  of  the  court  of  Israel  they  solemnly 
pronounced  this  benediction,  "Beauty  be  to  thee,  O  altar;" 
' '  beauty  be  to  thee,  O  altar. ' '  Among  the  Jews  of  some 
countries  at  the  present  day  this  custom  still  prevails,  the 
people  walking  around  the  desk  in  the  middle  of  the  syna- 
gogue, singing  Psalm  118:25. 

At  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  the  people  did  not  leave  the 
temple  at  the  end  of  the  evening  sacrifice,  as  was  their  custom 
on  other  festive  days.  They  remained  at  night  and  engaged 
in  the  rejoicing  for  the  pouring  out  of  the  water,  as  it  was 
called.  "  Their  manner  of  observing  it  was  as  follows:  They 
all  met  in  the  court  of  the  women;  the  women  above  in  the 
balconies  which  surrounded  three  sides  of  the  court,  and  the 
men  below  on  the  ground.  The  court  was  lighted  by  four 
golden  lamps,  one  on  each  side,  which  were  raised  to  a  great 
height,  and  kept  burning,  by  four  young  men  of  the  priest- 
hood, who  ascended  them  by  a  ladder,  poured  into  each  of 
them  one  hundred  and  twenty  logs  of  oil,  and  supplied  them 
with  wicks  that  had  formerly  been  prepared  from  the  old 
coats  and  girdles  of  the  priests. ' '  Prominent  in  the  exercises 
of  this  evening  was  the  music.  The  pipe  of  the  temple  was 
played,  and  on  the  steps  leading  from  the  court  of  the  women 
to  the  gate  of  Nicanor,  sat  the  Levites  with  their  instru- 
ments, those  belonging  to  the  vocal  department  singing,  as 
stated  by  some  authorities,  the  fifteen  Psalms  of  Degrees, 
from  Psalm  120th  to  Psalm  134th,  while  the  members  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  the  rulers  of  the  synagogues  and  the  doctors  and 
the  eminent  in  rank  and  piety  amused  themselves  and  the 
audience  by  dancing  to  the  sacred  music,  and  promenading 
with  torches  in  their  hantis. 

On  the  morning  of  the  second  day  of  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles,   instead    of    the   regular    Psalm    of    the    morning, 


THE  rSAI.:MS  IN  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH.  45 

the  Hallel  was  again  sung.  During  the  offering  of  the 
special  sacrifices  of  this  day,  the  Twenty-ninth  Psalm  was 
sung,  and  at  the  close  of  the  ceremonies  the  Jews  passed 
round  the  altar,  singing  Psalm  One  hundred  and  eighteenth, 
twenty-fifth  verse.  The  Hallel  was  sung  again  on  the  third 
day,  and  the  special  Psalm  sung  was  the  Fiftieth,  from  the 
eighteenth  verse  to  the  close.  The  exercises  of  the  fourth 
day  were  similar  to  those  preceding,  only  the  Ninety -fourth 
Psalm  was  sung  from  the  sixteenth  verse  to  the  end  ;  on  the 
fifth  day,  during  the  special  offering,  the  Ninety-fourth 
Psalm  was  sung  from  the  eighth  verse  to  the  end.  On  the 
sixth  day,  the  Eighty-first  Psalm  was  sung  from  verse  sixth 
to  the  end ;  on  the  seventh  day,  the  Eighty-second  Psalm, 
from  verse  fifth  to  the  end,  was  sung.  On  this  day  the 
modern  Jews  lay  aside  their  myrtle  and  palm  branches,  and 
take  only  the  willow,  while  they  make  seven  revolutions 
round  the  desk  of  the  synagogue,  singing  the  Twenty-ninth 
Psalm.  The  Psalm  of  the  eighth  day  of  the  feast  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  authorities  relied  on. 

At  the  Feast  of  Trumpets,  appointed  for  the  first  day 
of  the  moon  of  the  month  Tizri,  the  Levites  sang  Psalm 
Eighty-first ;  if,  however,  ' '  the  first  day  of  the  year  fell  upon 
the  fifth  day  of  the  week,  on  which  day  this  Psalm  was  ap- 
pointed always  to  be  sung  during  the  offering  of  the  morn- 
ing sacrifice,  they  then  sang  it  twice  over,  viz.,  once  at  the 
daily  sacrifice  and  once  at  the  additional  sacrifice,  beginning 
one  of  the  times  at  the  sixth  verse,  but  whether  the  first  or 
last  time  is  not  said.  And  if  the  new  year  fell  upon  the 
Sabbath  the  Psalms  for  the  first  day  of  the  year  were  sung, 
and  took  the  place  of  the  Psalms  which  in  that  section  were 
said  to  be  appointed  for  the  Sabbath." 

The  foregoing  account,  while  it  does  not  contain  the  full 
story  of  the  Psalm-singing  of  the  Jews,  will  suffice  to  show 
the  high  estimation  in  which  the  Psalms  were  held  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  woven  into  the  whole  warp  and 
woof  of  the  devotions  of  God's  ancient  people. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Psalms  in  the  Primitive  Church. 

Two  of  our  prominent  historians  seem  to  have  dis- 
covered no  traces  of  the  universal  use  of  the  Psalms  before 
the  fourth  century.  Says  Spanheim  :  "  Besides  hymns  and 
songs,  and  private  Psalms,  of  which  there  was  a  great  num- 
ber in  their  solemn  assemblies,  the  Psalm-book  of  David 
was  brought  into  the  Western  Church  in  this  age"  (the 
fourth  century).  Mosheim,  basing  his  opinion  on  the  testi- 
mony of  Cyril,  of  Jerusalem  ;  of  the  Apostolical  Constitu- 
tutions,  and  of  Beansobre,  states  that  the  "  Psalms  of  David 
were  now  (fourth  century)  sung  as  part  of  divine  service. ' ' 
How  far  Mosheim's  opinion  is  rendered  plausible  by  the 
statements  of  Cyril  and  Beansobre,  the  author  cannot  say, 
for  the  writings  of  these  persons  could  not  be  consulted  ; 
but  the  Apostolical  Constitutions  make  no  mention  of  the 
Psalms  except  in  connection  with  the  singing  and  reading  of 
them  in  the  regular  worship  of  the  Church,  thus  giving  no 
more  ground  for  the  inference  that  this  is  the  first  use  made 
of  them,  than  is  given  by  the  English  Liturgy,  or  Scotch 
Liturgy  for  the  conclusion  that  the  Psalms  were  not  sung  in 
Great  Britain  till  after  the  Reformation. 

Were  there  no  direct  testimony  as  to  Psalm-singing  in 
the  earliest  days  of  the  New  Testament  worship,  there  is 
circumstantial  evidence  strong  enough  to  justify  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  universal. 

The  founders  and  first  converts  of  the  primitive  Church 
were  Jews,  the  habits,  convictions,  and  tastes  of  whom 
would,  in  every  absence  of  divine  institution  and  direction, 
give  to  the  new  system  of  worship  a  shape  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  old.  We  need  no  more  confirmation  of  this 
conjecture  than  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  a  principle 
of  which  is  to  reproduce  in  new  places,  and  under  new  sj^s- 
tems,  old  and  long-cherished  customs,  except  where  necessity 
or  new  convictions  would  call  for  a  change.  So  powerfully 
(46) 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  47 

does  this  principle  operate,  that  often  antique  ways  and 
manners  are  preserved  in  spite  of  the  claims  of  duty, 
necessity,  and  reason  for  reform,  thus  occasioning  the  de- 
nunciation of  bigotiy. 

The  whole  Jewish  peopie  at  the  coming  of  Christ  were 
Psalm-singers.  They  were  early  brought  into  contact  with 
the  temple  services,  where  the  music  of  the  Levites  would, 
more  than  anything  else,  make  a  pleasing  impression  upon 
their  youthful  hearts.  Their  fondness  for  the  temple  and 
the  temple  exercises  would  naturally  include  the  Psalter. 
After  the  Babylonish  captivity,  there  is  a  probability  that 
the  Psalms  became,  as  they  were  not  fully  before,  the  com- 
mon property  of  the  people,  and  the  families.  The  Levites 
^till  held  their  place  and  observed  the  sacred  rites  of  their 
office  and  the  people  attended  their  services,  but  the  worship 
of  the  Church  was  not  so  fully  as  before  performed  by 
representation.  The  people  began  to  meet  in  synagogues  by 
themselves  and  for  themselves,  and  their  Psalmody  was 
diffused  among  the  homes  of  the  nation.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  Dispensation,  we  may  suppose  that  wherever 
there  was  a  religious  family  there  the  Psalms  were  sung  and 
taught.  These  home  customs  would  tend  to  deepen  the  love 
of  the  Jews  for  their  Psalms.  In  middle  life  and  old  age 
they  would  be  invested  with  tender  recollections  and  pleasing 
memories  of  early  years  and  of  home.  Christ  himself  was 
a  Jew,  of  strictly  Jewish  training,  and  grew  up  familiar 
with,  and  fondly  attached  to,  the  Book  of  Psalms.  Paul's 
attachment  to  Judaism  in  all  of  its  features  is  well  seen  in  his 
earl}^  persecutions.  With  all  of  the  Apostles  of  the  primi- 
tive Church,  there  were  habits  and  preferences  such  as  would 
insure  the  transfer  of  the  Jewish  songs  into  the  new  worship. 

In  addition  to  the  reference  of  early  impressions  and 
early  recollections,  the  Psalter  had  a  history  that  would 
beget  for  it  strong  attachment  in  the  Jewish  mind.  The 
biography  of  their  Psalmists  is  a  gallery  of  the  nation's  most 
honored  characters.  The  tabernacle  days  are  represented 
by  but  one  song,  but  that  one  is  sufficient  to  hallow  the 
whole  Psalter  with  the  memory  of  Moses.  David  is  the  first 
of  their  greatest  kings  and  warriors,  and  to  this  day  he  is 


48  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

honored  as  the  nation's  sweetest  bard.  Here  are  the  Psalms 
of  their  warrior  kings;  Psalms  from  the  days  of  Hezekiah, 
and  Josiah;  and  from  the  poets  of  the  returning  captives. 
These  are  the  Psalms  the  fathers  have  sung  for  centuries  ; 
they  have  cjmforted  them  in  trouble,  soothed  them  in  cap- 
tivity, nerved  them  for  battle,  gladdened  them  in  their  tri- 
umphs and  pilgrimages.  The  Psalter  is  identified  with  the 
whole  history  of  the  race  from  the  escape  out  of  Egypt  to  that 
out  of  Babylon,  and  is  a  mirroring  of  its  successes  and  mis- 
fortunes. What  a  precious  relic  of  the  past !  What  a  sweet 
souvenir  of  departed  greatness — these  old  lyrics  !  Every 
Jew  would  be  highly  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  such  re- 
flections, and  would  grow  proud  of  his  Psalter  as  of  his 
home  and  his  race.  Conversion  to  the  faith  of  Jesus,  as  the 
Messiah,  would  not  change  his  preferences  for  the  songs  of 
his  people,  unless  plain  precept  would  identify  them  with 
the  things  that  were  to  pass  away.  Rather  would  his  faith 
deepen  his  fondness  for  them,  as  in  tho  Saviour  it  would  per- 
ceive the  substance  of  their  foreshadowings. 

Wh}',  the  converted  Hebrew  might  ask,  may  I  not  sing 
the  Psalms  of  the  fathers  in  my  own  worship?  Christ  has 
nowhere  forliidden  it.      His  apostles  have  not  forbidden  it. 

These  Psalms  were  no  part  of  the  ceremonial  law,  and 
so  need  not  necessarily  pass  away  with  the  1)uliock  and  the 
blood  of  the  altar.  The  tone  of  them  is  against  Jewish  rit- 
ualism, and  is  eminently  in  harmony  with  the  spirituality  of 
the  new  Faith.  Instead  of  a  bleeding  laml?,  their  offering 
is  a  bleeding  heart;  a  broken  spirit  instead  of  a  mangled  sac- 
rifice. What  an  emphasis  are  they  upon  the  fundamental 
Gospel  idea,  "Not  by  the  flesh  of  bulls  and  goats,  but  by 
the  precious  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, ' ' 

It  would  be  unnatural  to  suppose  an  entire  and  abrupt 
cessation  in  the  sinoing^  of  the  Psalms  at  the  change  of  dis- 
pensation. 

The  positive  testimony  to  the  use  of  the  Psalms  in  the 
primitive  Church  is  by  no  means  full,  but  there  remains  suf- 
ficient to  place  the  question  beyond  a  doubt.  In  Ephesians 
5:19;  Colossians  3:16,  and  James  5:13,  the  use  of  the  term 
"Psalms  "  or  Psalmoi,  as  it  is  in  the  Greek,  certainly  refers 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  49 

to  the  Psalms,  and  intimates  that  they  were  sung  at  Colosse 
and  Ephesiis,  and  among  ' '  the  twelve  tribes  ' '  which  were 
' '  scattered  abroad. ' '  Christ  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  frequently  quote  from  the  Psalter,  and  call  it  the 
"Psalms,"  and  that,  no  doubt,  from  the  title  given  them  in 
the  Septuagint  translated  many  years  before  their  day.  The 
expression  in  1  Cor.  14:  15,  "I  will  sing  with  the  spirit, 
and  I  will  sing  with  the  understanding, ' '  reads  in  the  orig- 
inal, ' '  I  will  psalm  with  the  spirit  and  I  will  psalm  with  the 
understanding, ' '  and  seems  to  be  a  clear  indication  that  the 
Psalms  were  sung  at  Corinth.  The  occasions  on  which  the 
Psalms  were  sung  in  the  early  primitive  Church  and  the 
manner  of  singing  them  are  enveloped  in  darkness. 

That  the  ' '  Hymn  ' '  sung  by  Christ  and  his  disciples  at 
the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  the  usual  Psalm  of 
the  old  Passover,  as  prescribed  by  the  Jewish  liturgy,  there 
can  be  scarcely  a  doubt.  Says  Albert  Barnes,  ' '  The  One 
hundred  and  thirteenth  and  One  hundred  and  fourteenth 
Psalms  were  sung  during  the  observance  of  the  Passover, 
and  the  One  hundred  and  fifteenth.  One  hundred  and  six- 
teenth, One  hundred  and  seventeenth,  and  One  hundred  and 
eighteenth  Psalms  at  the  close.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
our  Saviour  and  the  apostles  also  used  the  same  Psalms  in 
their  observance  of  the  Passover. ' '  With  this  view  agrees 
Dr.  Lange  in  his  ' '  Life  of  Christ.  ' '  The  celebration  was 
now  concluded  by  singing  at  its  close  the  usual  Song  of 
Praise  (Psalms  One  hundred  and  fifteenth  to  One  hundred 
and  eighteenth  inclusive)."  At  the  time  of  Christ,  the  Greek 
words  ' '  Psalms  ' '  and  ' '  Hymns  ' '  were  both  applied  to  the 
Psalms  of  the  Bible.  In  the  Septuagint  ' '  Hymns  ' '  is  em- 
ployed in  the  titles  of  some  of  the  Psalms,  as  in  Psalms  Six, 
Fifty-four,  Fifty-five. 

In  the  ' '  Antiquity  of  the  Jews, ' '  published  about  the 
year  93  A.  D.,  Josephus  speaks  of  the  Psalms  as  hymns: 
"And  now  David,  being  freed  from  wars  and  dangers,  and 
enjoying  for  the  future  a  profound  peace,  composed  songs 
and  hymns  to  God  of  several  sorts  of  metre;  some  of  those 
which  he  made  were  trimeters,  and  some  were  pentameters  ; 
He  also  made  instruments  of  music,  and  taught  the  Levites 


60  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

to  sing  hymns  to  God."  In  the  apostolical  constitutions,  a 
liturgy  belonging  to  the  fourth  century,  ' '  the  Psalms  are 
called  hymns. "  "  Let  another  sing  the  hymns  of  David 
and  let  the  people  repeat  the  concluding  line. ' ' 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century  and  early  part 
of  the  second,  concerning  which  profane  history  says  but 
little,  we  may  suppose  that  the  Psalms  still  held  the  principal 
place  in  the  Psalmody  of  the  Christians.  Still  hallowed  by 
the  same  memories  as  when  first  sung  by  the  primitive  con- 
verts from  Judaism,  and  sanctified  by  the  practice  of  Jesus 
and  his  disciples,  they  would  commend  themselves  to  that 
age  almost  immediately  connected  with  the  days  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  Church.  The  custom  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
second  to  the  fifth  century  shows  that  from  a  very  early  date 
the  Psalms  were  in  prominent  use  at  communion,  on  the 
Sabbath,  during  the  extraordinary  gatherings  of  the  people 
preparatory  to  the  sacred  festivals,  and  in  the  private  wor- 
ship of  home.  As  Christianity  spread  itself  over  the  world 
the  Psalms  went  with  it,  until  by  the  fourth  century,  they 
were  sung  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  amid 
the  mountains  of  Persia,  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  in  Egypt 
and  Abyssinia,  along  the  north  coast  of  Africa,  and  in  the 
British  Isles,  as  well  as  in  the  crowded  congregations  of  Pal- 
estine, Asia  Minor,  Greece  and  Rome.  They  became  every- 
where identified  with  the  New  Testament  Church,  as  with 
the  Church  before  the  days  of  Christ;  and  their  varied  use 
now  forms  a  prominent  and  interesting  feature  of  ecclesias- 
tical history.  During  the  persecutions  of  the  first  centuries, 
begun  by  Nero,  and  carried  on  by  his  successors,  the  singing 
of  Psalms  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  most  frequent 
exercises  of  the  persecuted  as  they  gathered  in  the  Roman 
Catacombs,  in  the  caves,  and  wilderness  places,  or  in  the 
deserts  and  cemeteries. 

Tertulian,  who  was  a  presbyter  at  Carthage  about  the 
close  of  the  second  century,  informs  us  that  the  Psalms  took 
their  place  in  his  day  in  the  regular  worship  of  the  African 
Church,  and  that  the  singing  of  them  usually  followed  the  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures.  ' '  The  Scriptures  are  read  and  Psalms 
sung. ' '  The  same  custom  existed  still  in  the  fourth  century,  as 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH,  51 

Jerome  testifies.  In  speaking  of  the  assemblies  of  Christians 
in  his  time,  he  says  the  services  began  with  the  reading  of 
Scripture  and  the  singing  of  Psalms.  "When  they  are  as- 
sembled together,  Psalms  are  sung  and  Scriptures  read;  then 
prayers  being  read,  they  all  sit  down  and  the  father  begins 
a  discourse  to  them. ' ' 

Eusebius,  a  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  in  the  fourth  century, 
tells  us  the  Psalms  were  sung  in  his  day  and  his  country,  in 
all  the  assemblies  of  the  Christians.  St.  Basil,  of  the  same 
century  and  belonging  to  the  same  country  as  Eusebius,  says 
that  the  Christians  in  their  assemblies  offered  their  confes- 
sions on  their  knees,  and  then  rose  and  sang  Psalms  to  God. 
John  Chrysostom,  born  at  Antioch,  about  the  year  354,  and 
made  Bishop  of  Constantinople  in  398,  testifies  to  the  use  of 
the  Psalms  in  his  bishopric.  In  a  sermon  at  Constantinople 
he  remarks  to  his  audience,  "All  of  us,  young  and  old,  rich 
and  poor,  bond  and  free,  men  and  women,  what  have  we 
now  enjoyed  in  our  united  Psalm  !  With  one  voice,  and,  as 
it  were  with  one  heart,  we  have  sung  the  prayer.  As  the 
hand  of  the  harper  unites  all  the  strings  to  one  song,  so  the 
Psalm  brought  together  our  hearts  into  one  prayer.  And 
the  royal  poet  who  wrote  ages  agone  by,  has  been  present 
with  us  to-day  by  his  Psalm  and  has  joined  in  our  worship. " 
The  singing  of  Psalms  was  in  great  repute  in  Alexandria 
during  the  fourth  century,  and  especially  while  Athanasius 
resided  there  as  the  Bishop  of  that  church,  as  is  stated  by 
Augustine,  a  writer  of  the  fifth  century.  It  was  equally 
popular  in  the  church  at  Milan,  while  St.  Ambrose  was  its 
Bishop. 

Psalm-singing  was  not  confined  to  the  assemblies  of  the 
Christians,  but  became  a  popular  pastime,  and  a  part  of 
social  and  family  festivities  and  devotions.  Jerome  says  : 
' '  You  could  not  go  into  the  fields  but  you  might  hear  the 
plowman  at  his  hallelujahs  and  the  vine  dresser  chanting  the 
Psalms  of  David."  In  the  "Apostolical  Constitutions," 
which  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  representation  of  the  customs  of 
Psalmody  during  the  fourth  century,  it  is  stated, ' '  the  women, 
the  children,  and  humblest  mechanic,  could  repeat  all  the 
Psalms  of  David  ;  they  chanted  them  at  home  and  abroad  ; 


52  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

they  made  them  the  exercises  of  their  piety  and  the  refresh- 
ments of  their  minds.  They  thus  had  answers  ready  to 
oppose  temptation,  and  were  alwaj^s  prepared  to  pray  to  God, 
and  to  praise  him  in  any  circumstance  in  a  form  of  their  own 
inditing. ' ' 

The  same  custom  prevailed  among  the  Christians  at 
Constantinople.  Says  Chrysostom,  in  his  Homily  on  Peni- 
tence :  "All  Christians  employ  themselves  in  David's 
Psalms  more  frequently  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Old 
or  New  Testament.  The  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  so 
ordered  it,  that  they  should  be  recited  and  sang  every  night 
and  day.  In  the  Church's  vigils,  the  first,  the  midst,  the 
last  are  David's  Psalms.  In  the  morning  David's  Psalms 
are  sought  for ;  and  David  is  the  first,  the  midst  and  the 
last.  At  funeral  solemnities,  the  first,  the  midst  and  the 
last  is  David.  Many  who  know  not  a  letter  can  say  David's 
Psalms  by  heart.  In  all  the  private  houses,  where  the 
virgins  spin — in  the  monasteries — in  the  deserts,  where  men 
converse  with  God,  the  first,  the  midst  and  the  last  is  David. 
In  the  night,  when  men  are  asleep,  he  wakes  them  up  to 
sing  ;  and  collecting  the  servants  of  God  into  angelic  troops, 
turns  earth  into  heaven,  and  of  men  makes  angels,  chanting 
David's  Psalms." 

The  popularity  of  Psalm-singing  among  the  people  as 
early  as  the  second  century  may  be  seen  in  the  act  of 
Bardesanes  in  conforming  the  number  of  his  private  Psalms 
to  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  Psalms  of  the  Psalter,  so  that 
his  sentiments  might  more  easily  gain  access  to  the  people 
and  be  adopted  by  them. 

Although,  it  has  been  surmised,  by  writers  favorable  to 
that  view,  that  during  the  third  century,  the  compositions 
of  uninspired  men  were  to  some  extent  sung  by  Christians, 
yet  any  attempt  to  set  aside  the  Psalms  and  to  substitute  in 
their  place  any  other  songs  was  firmly  withstood.  An  in- 
stance of  this  occurs  in  the  case  of  Paul,  of  Samosata,  after 
the  middle  of  the  third  century.  Paul  was  Bishop  of 
Antioch  at  the  time  he  began  to  promulgate  his  Socinian 
heresy.  Two  councils  were  convened  concerning  him,  at  the 
second  of  which,  about  269,  A.  D.,  he  was  deposed  from  his 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  53 

office,  excluded  from  the  privileges  of  the  Church,  and  an 
epistle  was  written  and  dispersed  through  the  Roman  world 
explaining  the  errors  of  Paul,  and  the  decision  of  the  council. 
The  following:  extract  is  taken  from  Milner's  translation  of 
that  epistle  as  it  is  recorded  by  the  historian,  Eusebius  : 
' '  Vain,  and  fond  of  secular  dignity,  he  preferred  the  name  of 
Judge  to  that  of  Bishop  ;  he  erected  for  himself  a  tribunal 
and  lofty  throne,  after  the  manner  of  civil  magistrates, 
and  not  like  a  disciple  of  Christ.  He  was  accustomed  to 
walk  through  the  streets  with  a  numerous  guard,  in  great 
state,  receiving  letters  and  dictating  answers  ;  insomuch  that 
great  scandal  has  accrued  to  the  faith  through  his  pride  and 
haughtiness.  In  Church  assemblies  he  used  theatrical 
artiiices,  to  amaze,  surprise  and  procure  applause  from  weak 
people,  such  as  striking  his  thigh  with  his  hand,  and  stamp- 
ing with  his  feet.  Then,  if  there  were  any  who  did  not 
applaud  him,  nor  shake  their  handkerchiefs,  nor  make  loud 
acclamations,  as  is  usual  in  the  theater,  nor  leap  up  and 
down  as  his  partisans  do,  but  behaved  with  decent  and 
reverent  attentions  as  becomes  the  house  of  God,  he  reproved 
and  even  reviled  such  persons.  He  openly  inveighed  against 
the  deceased  expositors  of  the  Scripture  in  the  most  impu- 
dent and  scornful  terms,  and  magnified  himself  exactly  in  the 
manner  of  sophists  and  impostors.  He  suppressed  the 
Psalms  made  in  honor  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  called  them 
modern  comj^ositions ,'  and  he  directed  others  to  he  sung  in  the 
Church  in  his  own  cominendatloii  i  which  very  much 
shocked  his  hearers  ;  he  also  encouraged  similar  practices,  as 
far  as  it  was  in  his  power,  among  the  neighboring  Bishops. ' ' 
From  this  epistle  it  will  appear  that  a  part  of  the  charge 
against  Paul  was  that  he  interfered  with  the  Psalm-sinsfing:, 
long  in  practice  at  Antioch,  and  instituted  songs  in  his  own 
honor,  an  encroachment  that  a  council  composed  of  seventy 
Bishops  decided  as  contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  Church 
and  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  This  case  of  Paul,  however, 
has  been  a  matter  of  controversy.  It  is  claimed  by  many 
that  the  Psalms  displaced  by  Paul  were  the  hymns  of  the 
earlier  days  composed  in  honor  of  Christ  as  divine,  and  that 
he  is  the  first  who  introduced  and  defended  the  exclusive  use 


54  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

of  the  Psalms  of  the  Bible.  The  testimony  on  which  such  an 
opinion  is  based  is  that  of  Neander  in  his  Ecclesiastical 
History.  He  states  the  case  of  Paul  thus  :  ' '  The  Church 
hymns,  which  had  been  in  use  since  the  second  century,  he 
banished  as  an  innovation,  *  *  *  on  the  principle  that 
only  passages  out  of  the  Holy  Scripture  ought  to  be  sung  ; 
and  thus  he  probably  suffered  nothing  but  the  Psalms  to  be 
used. ' ' 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  how  historians  become  so 
widely  different  in  their  views,  when  having  access  to  the 
same  records.  It  is  equally  difficult  to  conjecture  how  Paul 
could  expect  any  aid  in  his  errors  from  the  exclusive  use  of 
the  Psalms,  since  they  have  always  been  regarded  as  pro- 
phetic of  a  divine  Saviour,  and  are  so  quoted  in  the  New 
Testament. 

It  was  no  uncommon  circumstance  for  the  Christians  to 
be  condemned  by  heretics  for  their  Psalm-singing.  Augustine 
says  of  one  Hilary,  that  he  ' '  took  every  opportunity  of 
loading  with  malicious  censure  the  customs — that  hymns 
from  the  Book  of  Psalms  should  be  sung  at  the  altar." 
Such  was  the  conduct  of  this  person  that  Augustine,  at  the 
request  of  his  brethren,  replied  to  his  reproaches.  The 
same  author  says  of  the  Donatists  that  they  reproached  the 
Orthodox  ' '  because  they  sang  with  sobriety  the  divine  songs 
of  the  prophets,  while  they  (the  Donatists)  inflamed  their 
minds  with  the  poetic  effusions  of  human  genius. ' ' 

Concerning  the  distribution  of  the  Psalms  in  the  public 
services,  whether  a  liturgical  method  of  stated  Psalms  for 
stated  occasions  prevailed  to  any  great  extent,  as  among  the 
Jews,  is  not  known.  It  appears  that  certain  Psalms  were 
popular  on  special  occasions  before  the  fifth  century,  but  it 
is  not  probable  any  rule  on  the  subject  was  generally  fol- 
lowed. In  the  second  century,  Tertullian  says  that  the 
One  hundred  and  thirty-third  Psalm  was  generally  sung  on 
communion  occasions,  and  he  complains  of  those  who  use  it 
only  on  that  occasion.  In  the  third  century  it  was  customary 
in  the  Af  rick  churches  to  sing  the  Thirty-third  Psalm  at  com- 
munion: "  I  will  bless  the  Lord  at  all  times  ;  his  praise  shall 
be  continually  in  my  mouth,"  etc. — corresponding  to  the 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  55 

Thirty-fourth  of  the  English  Psalter.  This  Psalm  is  also 
recommended  by  the  author  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions, 
and  was  used  at  the  Lord's  Supper  by  Jerome.  In  Je- 
rome's day,  the  Forty-fifth  was  a  communion  Psalm  : 
' '  My  heart  is  inditing  a  good  matter, ' '  &c.  In  the 
Africk  churches  about  the  same  time  the  One  hundred  and 
thirty-third  was  sung.  Of  this  Psalm,  St.  Augustin  says  it 
was  so  noted  and  well  known  that  they  who  knew  nothing 
of  the  Psalter  could  repeat  it  from  hearing  it  so  frequently 
sung  at  the  altar. 

In  the  Liturgy  of  St.  James  the  Thirty-fourth  Psalm  is 
appointed  for  communion  seasons,  chiefly  because  of  the 
words  in  the  eighth  verse,  "  O  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is 
good;  blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth  in  him."  St.  Mark's 
Liturgy  appoints  Psalm  Forty-second,  "  As  a  hart  panteth 
after  the  water-brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God, ' ' 
&Q.  According  to  Cotelerius,  in  some  of  the  ancient  rituals, 
at  the  end  of  Gregory's  Sacramentarium,  the  One  hundred 
and  thirty-ninth  Psalm  is  recommended,  "  O  Lord,  thou  has 
searched  me  and  known  me,"  &c.  St.  Chrysostom  says  the 
One  hundred  and  forty-fifth  Psalm  was,  in  his  day,  sung  at 
communion,  chiefly  because  of  the  words,  "The  eyes  of  all 
wait  upon  thee,  and  thou  givest  them  their  meat  in  due  sea- 
son." 

In  a  Liturgy  attributed  to  St.  Chrysostom  the  One  hun- 
dred and  thirteenth  and  Thirty -fourth  Psalms  are  appointed 
to  be  sung. 

The  Liturgy  of  St.  James  recommended  the  singing  of 
the  Fifty-seventh  Psalm  after  the  communion,  "  Be  merci- 
ful unto  me,  O  God, ' '  &c. ;  also  the  Seventy-first,  because 
of  verse  eighth,  "Let  my  mouth  be  filled  with  thy  praise, 
and  with  thy  honor  all  the  day. ' '  In  some  of  the  churches 
it  was  customary  to  sing  Psalms  while  the  communicants 
were  partaking  of  the  supper,  as  well  as  before  and  after  it, 
but  what  Psalms,  or  whether  any  particular  ones,  were  se- 
lected, is  not  stated.  It  was  also  customary  in  some  places 
for  the  minister  to  lecture  through  the  Psalms  regularly,  in 
which  case  the  precentor  was  required  to  give  out  the  Psalms 
in  their  order  for  the  people  to  sing.     This  method  was  fol- 


56  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

lowed  by  Augustine,  for  he  speaks  of  the  Sixty-fifth  as  be- 
ing sung  in  this  way. 

Psalm-singing  was  a  part  of  the  exercises  connected 
with  the  burial  of  the  dead.  At  first  there  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  any  set  Psalms  for  such  occasions  ;  but  after  lit- 
urgies had  come  into  use  the  Psalms  for  funerals,  as  well  as 
the  prayers  and  chapters  from  the  Scriptures,  were  appointed 
and  regularly  sung.  This  custom  came  into  the  New  Testa- 
ment church  from  the  Jews,  among  whom  it  was  customary 
to  follow  the  dead  to  their  graves  singing  and  playing  upon 
instruments  of  music. 

An  incident  related  by  Gibbon  in  his  History  of  the 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  will  illustrate  the  use 
of  Psalmody  at  funerals,  and  give  some  idea  of  the  enthusi- 
asm with  which  the  Psalms  were  sung  in  the  time  of  Julian, 
the  apostate.  Julian,  who,  until  his  manhood,  was  trained 
in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  became  one  of  the  last  de- 
fenders of  ancient  paganism.  He  restored  the  worship  of 
the  sun,  filled  his  gardens  with  the  statues  and  altars  of  the 
gods,  rebuilt  the  temples  and  sacred  places  that  Christianity 
had  been  instrumental  in  destroying,  and  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  revenue  in  refitting  the  groves  once  dedicated  to 
some  heathen  deity,  bringing  birds  from  distant  countries  to 
bleed  on  the  altars,  and  procuring  oxen,  a  whole  hecatomb 
of  which  he  would  sometimes  sacrifice  at  a  single  offering, 
all  for  the  purpose  of  resurrecting  the  magnificent  pageantry 
of  heroic  and  mythological  ages. 

Julian,  in  his  zeal  for  his  new  faith,  tried  a  weapon 
often  tried  after  his  day  by  the  church  he  then  sought  to  de- 
stroy— persecution.  Such  was  his  fervor  that  blood  did 
not  satisfy;  but  even  the  dead  bodies  of  the  Christians  that 
for  a  century  had  been  in  their  graves  must  be  removed  from 
the  sacred  places  and  buried  elsewhere.  The  demonstration 
of  the  Christians  connected  with  the  removal  of  the  body  of 
one  of  their  early  bishops,  and  its  reburial  at  Antioch,  is 
graphically  described  by  Gibbon  in  his  seventy-third  chap- 
ter. After  the  body  of  Babyeas,  bishop  of  Antioch,  had 
rested  near  a  century  in  its  grave  it  was  reburied  in  the 
Grove  of  Daphne  and  a  magnificent  temple  erected  over  his 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  67 

remains.  By  the  order  of  Julian  this  temple  was  demol- 
ished and  the  remains  of  the  bishop  removed  to  their  former 
resting  place  within  the  walls  of  Antioch.  "The  scene  of 
infection  was  purified  according  to  the  forms  of  ancient 
rituals;  the  bodies  were  decently  removed,  and  the  ministers 
of  the  church  were  permitted  to  convey  the  remains  of  St. 
Baljylas  to  their  former  habitation  within  the  walls  of  An- 
tioch. The  modest  behavior  which  might  have  assuaged  the 
jealousy  of  a  hostile  government  was  neglected  on  this  occa- 
sion by  the  zeal  of  the  Christians.  The  lofty  car  that  trans- 
ported the  relics  of  Babylas  was  followed  and  accompanied 
and  received  by  an  innumerable  multitude,  who  chanted^  with 
thundering  acclamations,  the  Psalms  of  David,  the  most  ex- 
pressive of  their  contempt  for  idols  and  idolaters.  The  re- 
turn of  the  saint  was  a  triumph;  and  the  triumph  was  an  in- 
sult to  the  religion  of  the  Emperor,  who  exerted  his  pride 

to  dissemble  his  resentment.     During  the  night  which  ter- 
es o 

minated  this  indiscreet  procession  the  temple  of  Daphne  was 
in  flames;  the  statue  of  Apollo  was  consumed,  and  the  walls 
of  the  edifice  were  left  a  naked  and  awful  monument  of 
ruin. ' '  The  Psalm  chanted  on  this  occasion  was  the  Ninety- 
seventh,  chosen  particularly  for  the  sentiment,  "  Confounded 
be  all  they  that  serve  graven  images,  that  boast  themselves 
of  idols. ' '  The  ringleader  in  the  movement  of  the  Chris- 
tians was  Theodorus,  a  pious  young  man.  Julian,  enraged, 
commanded  him  to  be  seized  and  put  to  the  torture.  But 
though  tormented  by  the  pains  of  the  rack  for  a  whole  day, 
Theodorus  continued  cheerful  and  persevered  in  singing 
< '  Confounded  be  all  they  that  serve  graven  images, ' '  &c. 

In  Antioch  lived,  during  these  excitements,  a  Christian 
lady  named  Publia.  It  was  her  custom  when  Julian  would 
pass  by  her  window  to  sing  from  the  One  hundred  and  fif- 
teenth Psalm,  ' '  Their  idols  are  silver  and  gold,  the  work  of 
men's  hands,"  &c.  When  commanded  on  one  occasion  to 
be  silent,  she  responded  to  the  command  by  singing  from 
Psalm  Sixty -eighth,  ' '  Let  God  arise,  let  his  enemies  be 
scattered,"  &c.  For  her  Psalm-singing  Julian  commanded 
her  to  be  brought  before  him,  where  she  was  beaten  till  she 
was  covered  with  blood.     She  bore  her  suffering  patiently, 


68  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

and,  on  her  release,  returned  to  her  home  to  continue  sing- 
ing with  her  companions. 

An  interesting  feature  in  the  history  of  the  Psalms  dur- 
ino;  the  fourth  century,  and  while  Julian  was  still  in  power, 
is  the  use  made  of  them  by  the  Christians  for  comfort  and 
encouragement  under  the  Arian  persecution.  It  was  no  un- 
common thing  for  the  Christians  to  be  surrounded  in  their 
churches  by  Arian  soldiers,  and  besieged  while  at  their  devo- 
tions. Under  such  circumstances  the  bishop,  or  presbyter, 
would  order  his  precentor  to  give  out  some  Psalm,  which  he 
and  the  people  would  sing.  Sometimes  whole  nights  and 
days  were  spent  in  Psalm-singing,  and  not  unfrequently  the 
besiegers  were  batfled  by  the  valor  and  Psalmody  of  the 
besieged. 

An  instance  of  this  occurred  in  the  church  at  Alexan- 
dria, under  the  rule  of  the  celebrated  Athanasius,  often  known 
as  the  Father  of  Orthodoxy.  The  duke  of  Egypt,  with  five 
thousand  soldiers,  suddenly  invested  the  church  of  St.  The- 
onas,  where  Athanasius  and  part  of  his  clergy  and  people 
were  performing  their  midnight  devotions.  While  the  sol- 
diers were  breaking  open  the  sacred  edifice,  '  'the  archbishop, 
seated  on  his  throne,  expected,  with  calm  and  intrepid  dig- 
nity, the  approach  of  death;  while  the  public  devotion  was 
interrupted  by  shouts  of  rage  and  cries  of  terror,  he  ani- 
mated his  trembling  congregation  to  express  their  religious 
confidence  by  chanting  one  of  the  Psalms  of  David  which 
celebrates  the  triumph  of  the  God  of  Israel  over  the  haughty 
and  imperious  tyrant  of  Egypt. ' '  The  Psalm  sung  was  the 
One  hundred  and  thirty-sixth,  which  was  performed  by  the 
deacon  singing: 

0  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord;  for  he  is  good : 
And  the  people  responding — 

For  his  mercj'  endureth  forever. 
As  the  Psalm  concluded  the  soldiers  rushed  into  the  build- 
ing, but  Athanasius,  through  the  importunities  of  the  clergy 
and  monks,  made  his  escape  and   spent  six  years  in  impene- 
trable obscurity  among  the  lonely  monasteries  by  the  Nile. 

In  Syria,   among  other  depredations,  the  Arians  per- 
verted the  Doxology,  "Glory  be  to  the  Father,  the  Son  and 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  59 

the  Holy  Ghost, ' '  which  contained  a  recognition  of  the  Trin- 
ity of  the  Godhead,  and  made  it  read,  ' '  Glory  be  to  the 
Father,  hy  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost. ' '  Leontius,  the 
Arian  Bishop  of  Antioch,  adopted  this  Unitarian  doxology, 
when  Flavian  and  Diodorus,  two  pastors,  and  both  earnest 
supporters  of  the  orthodox  faith,  withdrew  from  his  com- 
munion, and  assembled  their  followers  at  the  monuments  of 
the  martyrs,  where,  dividing  them  into  two  parts,  they 
taught  them  to  sing  alternately  the  Psalms  of  the  Bible  and 
the  orthodox  doxology.  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  According  to  Theodoret,  Flavian  and 
Diodorus  and  their  adherents,  wandered  for  days  and  nights 
in  the  palm  groves  of  Syria,  and  the  desert,  now  reclining 
under  the  open  sky,  again  resting  near  the  foot  of  some 
mountain,  havini;  nothino;  to  console  them  but  the  Psalms, 
which,  however,  they  sang  everywhere.  ' '  At  length  they 
led  the  iiock  beside  the  banks  of  a  neighboring  stream;  they 
did  not,  like  the  captives  of  Babylon,  hang  their  harps  on 
the  willows,  for  they  sang  praises  to  their  Creator  in  every 
part  of  his  kingdom. ' '  The  zeal  of  these  Trinitarians  was 
so  great  that  swarms  of  monks  were  attracted  to  their  meet- 
ings and  took  part  in  their  Psalmody.  Leontius,  the  Bishop 
of  Antioch,  was  in  danger  of  losing  his  whole  congregation, 
and  was  compelled  to  recall  the  two  protesting  pastors  and 
introduce  the  orthodox  doxology.  Milner  states  that  Fla- 
vian was  the  first  to  use  the  present  doxology,  as  sung  in  our 
evangelical  churches,  and  that  he  was  induced  to  introduce 
it  as  an  offset  to  the  Arian  doxology  established  first  in  his 
day. 

To  the  fourth  century  has  been  referred  a  relic  brought 
by  Dr.  Hogg  from  Egypt,  in  1843.  It  is  a  portion  of  the 
book  of  Psalms,  written  on  papyrus,  and  is  thus  described: 
"Among  the  various  objects  of  antiquity  which  were  pur- 
chased from  the  Arabs  at  Thebes  were  two  papyri,  the  one 
Coptic,  the  other  Greek;  both  in  the  form  of  books.  The 
subject  of  the  Coptic  papyrus,  now  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Gill,  at  Naples,  has  not  yet  been  ascertained,  but  since 
my  return  to  England,  the  Greek  papyrus  has  been  discov- 
ered to  contain  a  portion  of  the  Psalms.     The  leaves  are  of 


60  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

about  ten  inches  in  length,  by  seven  in  width,  and  are  ar- 
ranged and  have  been  sewed  together  like  a  book.  They 
are  formed  of  strips  of  the  papyrus  plant  crossing  each  other 
at  right  angles.  The  writing,  continued  on  both  sides,  is 
perfectly  legible,  the  letters  partaking  both  of  the  uncial  and 
cursive  forms,  sometimes  standing  quite  apart,  unconnected 
by  cursive  strokes,  with  accents  occasionally  but  not  regu- 
larly inserted.  The  beginning  of  the  manuscript  is  imper- 
fect, and  it  concludes  with  the  second  verse  of  the  Thirty- 
fourth  Psalm.  The  text,  as  far  as  it  has  been  collated,  has 
been  found  to  be  a  good  one,  and  to  possess  some  interesting 
variations  not  found  in  other  ancient  versions.  These  papyri 
were  both  discovered  among  the  rubbish  of  an  ancient  con- 
vent at  Thebes,  remarkable  as  still  presenting  some  frag- 
ments of  an  inscription  purporting  to  be  a  pastoral  letter 
from  Athanasius,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  who  died  A.  D. 
371,  which  has  been  conjectured  to  be  the  age  of  the  man- 
uscript. ' '  This  was  no  doubt  the  form  of  the  Psalm  books 
used  by  the  monks  in  their  devotions  in  that  early  day,  and 
as  used  in  the  church  in  Alexandria  while  Athanasius  was 
Bishop. 

The  Book  of  Psalms  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  early 
Christian  fathers,  not  simply  because  they  atforded  excellent 
material  for  public  and  private  psalmody,  but  because  of  the 
influence  the  reading,  singing  and  studying  of  them  had  in 
forming  character  and  promoting  virtue.  Most  of  the  early 
authors  prepared  commentaries  on  the  Psalms,  in  which 
their  sentiments  may  be  seen. 

Says  St.  Basil,  of  the  fourth  century,  ' '  What  is  it,  I 
pray,  which  you  cannot  lind  in  the  Psalms  ?  Do  not  they 
teach  you  the  most  honoral^le  fortitude,  the  most  exact  jus- 
tice, a  grave  temperance,  a  discerning  prudence,  a  right 
manner  of  repentance,  the  rules  of  patience,  and  every  good 
thing  that  can  be  mentioned  ?  ' ' 

St.  Ambrose  was  a  great  admirer  of  what  he  called 
"The  sweet  book  of  Psalms."  The  One  hundred  and  nine- 
teenth was  especialh'  a  favorite  with  him. 

Ausrustine,  after  he  had  heard  the  Psalms  sunff  in  the 
church  at  Milan,  wrote,  "  I  read  with  pleasure  the  Psalms 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  61 

of  David — the  hymns  and  songs  of  thy  church  moved  my 
soul  intensely;  thy  truth  was  distilled  by  them  into  my 
heart;  the  flame  of  piety  was  kindled,  and  my  tears  flowed 
for  joy."  From  the  tenth  book  of  his  Confessions  we  learn 
that  the  "hymns  and  songs  "  sung  at  the  church  at  Milan 
were  the  Psalms  of  the  Bible.  In  his  last  sickness  this  dis- 
tinguished divine  exhibited  his  attachment  to  the  Psalms  by 
having  those  called  the  Penitential  Psalms  inscribed  upon  the 
wall  of  his  bed  chamber  in  a  position  and  in  such  sized  char- 
acters that  he  could  easily  read  them.  He  usually  read  them 
with  eyes  filled  with  tears.  Bingham,  in  his  Antiquities, 
states  the  same  thing  as  having  been  commanded  by  St.  Aus- 
tine  while  he  lay  sick. 

Jerome  was  the  author  of  "  Commentaries  on  the 
Psalms;"  and  he  was  so  much  of  an  admirer  of  them  that  he 
was  accustomed  to  recommend  the  reading,  singing  and  com- 
mitting of  them  to  his  pupils.  He  directed  Rusticus  ' '  to 
learn  the  Psalms  by  heart,  and  to  repeat  them  in  turn  as  in 
the  monks'  assemblies,"  saying  that  he  himself  had  learned 
them  by  heart  when  he  was  young,  and  sang  them  every  day 
when  old.  His  advice  to  the  Lady  Paula,  with  reference  to 
the  training  of  her  daughter,  was,  ' '  Let  her  never  hear  bad 
words,  but  as  soon  as  she  can  speak  let  her  learn  some  parts 
of  the  Psalms."  He  relates  of  Marcella,  Paula,  Blesilla 
and  Eustochinno  that  they  could  recite  with  ease  the  Psalter 
in  the  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  tongues. 

The  Psalms  are  still  read  and  sung  in  those  churches  of 
the  present  day  that  have  descended  from  the  primitive 
Asiatic,  African  and  European  congregations.  While  we 
lament  their  degeneracy  in  the  faith  and  piety  of  early  days, 
and  that  they  are  now  regarded,  alongside  of  Mohamedan- 
ism  and  Budhism,  as  missionary  ground,  yet  their  present 
practices  and  attachments  with  reference  to  the  Psalms  and 
remnants  of  other  portions  of  the  Scriptures,  are  a  pleasing 
episode  in  a  history  otherwise  so  full  of  superstition  and 
folly. 

Among  the  Nestorians,  the  nearest  orthodoxy  of  all  the 
relics  of  primitive  churches,  the  Psalms  are  sung  exclu- 
sively in  worship.     The  whole  book  of  Psalms,  or  portions 


62  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

of  it,  may  be  still  found  among  the  native  Abyssinians, 
Copts,  Armenians,  and  all  the  Eastern  churches.  The  fol- 
lowing extracts  are  fi'om  a  letter  written  years  ago  to  the 
author  by  Kev.  John  Crawford,  a  missionary  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Damascus,  Syria  :  ' '  The  Psalms 
of  David  are,  I  believe,  used  more  or  less  in  all  the  Eastern 
churches.  These  churches  are  not  all  represented  in  Damas- 
cus, or  in  Syria,  although  the  most  of  them  are.  There 
are,  for  example,  no  Nestorians  in  Syria,  and  no  Copts  in 
this  part  of  it,  and  I  cannot  therefore  speak  positively  in  re- 
gard to  them;  but  I  presume  that,  in  respect  to  the  matter 
under  consideration,  there  is  little  difference  between  them 
and  the  other  churches.  In  the  Greek,  the  Armenian,  the 
Syrian  and  the  Maronite  churches  the  Psalms  are  much  used 
in  their  different  services.  The  Liturgy  of  the  Greek 
church,  which  I  have  before  me  in  Arabic,  contains  a  large 
number  of  Psalms.  Some  of  these  are  merely  read,  or  used 
as  prayers;  others  are  sung.  In  the  Greek  church  here  in 
Syria  they  are  sung  sometimes  in  Arabic,  sometimes  in  mod- 
ern Greek,  although  few  of  the  people  understand  Greek. 
In  the  Syrian  and  Maronite  churches  they  are  sung  in  Syriac 
only,  a  language  which  few  of  the  worshipers  now  under- 
stand. In  the  Armenian  church,  the  Armenian  language, 
which  is  the  language  of  the  people,  is,  I  think,  used  alone. 

'  '•  In  all  the  schools  in  these  churches  the  children  are 
tavight  to  read  the  Psalms.  No  other  portion  of  the  Script- 
ures is  used,  and  the  book  of  Psalms  is  almost  the  only  read- 
ing book,  so  that  the  children  become  very  familiar  with  the 
Psalms  and  can  repeat  many  of  them  from  memory. 

' '  So  far  as  I  am  informed,  none  of  the  churches  have 
metrical  versions  of  the  Psalms,  but  all  use  the  prose  ver- 
sion. They  are,  of  course,  chanted,  although,  I  should  say, 
their  mode  of  chanting  differs  a  good  deal  from  the  mode  of 
chanting  in  the  West.  I  have  not,  however,  sufficient 
knowledge  of  music  to  describe  the  difference. ' ' 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  amid  the  many  changes  that 
have  passed  over  the  spirit  of  the  Oriental  churches,  during 
a  period  of  more  than  two  thousand  years,  that  the  music  of 
Judah's  Psalmists  in   no  instance  has  lost   its   exercise  or 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  PEIMITIVE  CHURCH.  63 

its  power.  In  the  Revolution  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles 
that  overturned  a  system  having  its  existence  from  the  days 
of  Moses,  the  Psalms  received  a  lustre  they  never  possessed 
before,  and  so  continued  the  songs  of  Zion. 

In  the  decay  of  primitive  Christianity,  they  preserved 
a  place  and  an  influence,  when  for  the  most  part  superstition 
and  formalism  covered  and  concealed  all  else.  Whatever 
efforts  have  been  made,  to  further  change  the  features  of 
eastern  religion,  it  has  been  Psalm-singers  converting  Psalm- 
singers  to  Psalm-singing.  Judaism,  in  its  efforts  to  reclaim 
the  fair  country  of  Palestine  to  the  faith  and  the  forms  of 
the  kings  and  the  prophets,  still  sings  the  Psalms  of  David. 
Catholicism  sent  over  her  missionaries  to  persuade  the 
Greeks,  Syrians,  Egyptians,  Abyssinians,  to  pay  respect  to 
the  Holy  See,  but  she  sent  the  Psalter  as  the  music  of  her 
schools.  From  the  evangelical  churches  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  have  been  sent  missionaries  to  brinor 
back  the  descendants  of  the  primitive  worshipers  to  the 
purity  and  simplicity  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ,  but  in 
their  Sabbath  Schools  and  congregations  in  Asia  Minor, 
Palestine,  along  the  Nile,  the  Copts,  Armenians,  Maronites, 
are  taught  to  sing  the  same  Psalms  that  they  and  their 
fathers  before  them  had  sung  in  their  native  worship. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Psalms  in  the  Dark  Ages. 

The  term  Dark  Ages  has  been  applied  in  its  widest 
sense  to  that  period  of  intellectual  depression  in  the  history 
of  Europe,  from  the  establishment  of  the  barbarian  su- 
premacy in  the  fifth  century  to  the  revival  of  learning,  about 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.  During  these  thousand 
years  the  pall  of  ignorance,  superstition  and  crime  rested 
upon  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  state,  and  her  forms  of 
worship,  like  her  priests  and  people,  became  greatly  cor- 
rupted. The  Scriptures  gradually  passed  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  people,  so  that  Luther  could  consult  a  Bible  only  as 
he  found  it  in  a  dead  language,  and  chained  in  a  monastery. 
It  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  fact,  that  in  this  period  of 
darkness  the  Psalms  of  David  were  almost  the  only  portion 
of  the  Sacred  Volume  that  continued  its  influence  upon  the 
minds  of  men.  Though  the  practice  of  Psalmody  was 
greatly  corrupted,  the  chain  in  the  story  of  the  Hebrew 
Psalter  remains  an  unbroken  one. 

This  is  the  era  of  the  reign  of  the  monastic  system, 
which,  in  the  fourth  century,  swept  with  the  rapidity  of  a 
contagion  from  the  highlands  of  Upper  Egypt,  through 
Palestine  and  Syria  and  Italy,  into  Gaul  and  Great  Britain. 
What  was  at  first  a  vast  confusion,  gradually  became  reduced 
to  a  rigid  system  of  religious  forms  and  services  under  the 
influence  of  such  monks  as  St.  Anthony  and  Pachomius. 

Of  the  devotions  of  the  monasteries  it  may  be  said  that 
David's  Psalms  were  "the  first,  the  middle  and  the  last." 
It  was  a  part  of  the  exercise  of  each  day  to  learn  a  portion 
of  the  Psalms  by  heart.  Outside  of  the  cloister  exercises  the 
monks  sang  Psalms  at  their  labors,  in  their  recreations,  in 
their  wanderings.  Friends  were  received  into  the  dwellings 
of  the  monks  by  Psalm-singing  in  imitation  of  Christ's  en- 
trance into  Jerusalem.     They   sang  them  at  their  meals,  in 

(64) 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  65 

their  social  gatherings,  and  at  all  hours  during  the  night  and 
day.  This  they  did  without  books,  having  committed  to 
memory  the  Psalms  according  to  the  rules  of  their  orders. 
Psalm-singing  was  so  universal  among  the  monks  that  an 
ancient  author  says  of  those  in  Palestine,  ' '  At  Bethlehem 
there  was  nothing  to  be  heard  but  Psalms;  one  could  not  go 
into  the  fields  but  he  would  hear  the  mower  solacing  himself 
with  hymns,  and  the  vinedresser  tuning  David's  Psalms." 

As  may  be  supposed,  in  an  age  of  extravagance,  and 
among  fanatics,  Psalm-singing  among  these  ascetics  was  car- 
ried to  excess.  A  single  instance  will  exhibit  this.  Socrates 
in  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  when  speaking  of  the  monks  of 
Egypt,  mentions  one  Pambos,  an  illiterate  man  who  spent 
nineteen  years  in  singing  one  verse  of  a  Psalm:  he  "went  to 
some  one  for  the  purpose  of  being  taught  a  Psalm;  and  hav- 
ing heard  the  first  verse  of  the  Thirty-eighth,  '  I  said,  I  will 
take  heed  to  my  ways  that  I  oflfend  not  with  my  tongue, '  he 
departed  without  staying  to  hear  the  second  verse,  saying, 
this  one  would  suffice  if  he  could  practically  acquire  it.  And 
when  the  person  who  had  given  him  the  verse,  reproved  him 
because  he  had  not  seen  him  for  the  space  of  six  months,  he 
ans^^ered  that  he  had  not  yet  learned  to  practice  the  verse  of 
the  Psalm.  After  a  considerable  lapse  of  time,  being  asked 
by  one  of  his  friends  whether  he  had  made  himself  master  of 
the  verse,  he  answered,  'I  have  scarcely  succeeded  in  accom- 
plishing it  during  nineteen  years.'  " 

In  the  monasteries  Psalms  were  sung  at  all  the  canoni- 
cal hours.  In  Egypt,  according  to  St.  Jerome,  the  monks  met 
at  9  o'clock,  when  Psalms  were  sung.  Scriptures  read,  prayer 
offered  and  remarks  made.  The  author  of  the  Constitutions 
prescribes  for  the  devotions,  the  reading  of  the  Old  Testament, 
then  the  singing  of  Psalms ;  to  the  Bishops  he  gives  direc- 
tion: "  When  you  teach  the  people,  O  Bishop,  command 
them  to  come  to  church  morning  and  evening,  every  day — 
do  you  assemble  yourselves  together  every  day,  morning  and 
evening,  singing  Psalms,  and  praying  in  the  Lord's  house. 
But  especially  on  the  Sabbath  day,  do  you  meet  together 
more  diligently. ' '  In  many  cases  the  superintendence  of 
these  Bishops  extended  to  the  monasteries. 


06  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

St.  Basil,  in  speaking  of  the  nocturnal  worship  of  the 
monks,  mentions  their  confessing  on  their  knees,  and  their 
rising  to  sing  Psalms. 

In  connection  with  certain  hours,  certain  Psalms  were 
chosen  and  sung  regularly  because  of  some  supposed  fitness 
for  those  hours. 

The  Psalm  that  was  sung  statedly  in  the  morning  ser- 
vice was  the  Sixty-third,  being  selected  because  of  the  words, 
"Early  will  I  seek  thee."  The  monkish  fathers  highly 
prized  this  Psalm  "as  a  spiritual  song  and  medicine  to  blot 
out  our  sins,  to  kindle  in  us  a  desire  of  God;  to  raise  our 
souls  and  inflame  them  with  a  mighty  fire  of  devotion. ' '  It 
was  known  as  the  Morning  Psalm.  The  stated  Psalm  for 
the  evening  service  was  that  numbered  One  hundred  and  for- 
tieth in  the  Latin  Psalter,  bat  in  the  English  One  hundred 
and  forty-first.  It  was  selected  for  the  words,  ' '  Let  my 
prayer  be  set  forth  before  thee  as  incense,  ajid  the  lifting  up 
of  my  hands  as  the  evening  sacrifice, ' '  and  was  called  the 
Evening  Psalm.  In  some  monasteries  stated  Psalms  were 
selected  for  the  hours  between  the  morning  and  evening  ser- 
vices, and  in  others  not,  such  being  sung  as  the  leader  or 
abbot  might  choose.  According  to  St.  Basil,  in  some  places 
the  Ninety-first  Psalm  was  sung  regularly  at  the  sixth  hour 
or  noon-day.  It  was  used  to  guard  against  the  incursions  of 
noon-day  devils,  and  was  selected  chiefly  because  of  the 
words  in  verses  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth: 

"4.  He  shall  cover  thee  with  his  feathers,  and  under  his  wings 
shalt  thou  trust  ;  his  truth  shalt  be  thy  shield  and  buckler. 

"5.  Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  of  the  terror  by  night,  nor  for  the 
arrow  that  llieth  by  day  ; 

"  6.  Nor  for  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness  ;  nor  for  the 
destruction  that  wasteth  at  noonday." 

The  stated  Psalm  was  not  the  only  one  sung  at  the  hour 
for  which  it  was  appointed.  Other  Psalms  were  usually 
selected  at  the  option  of  whoever  conducted  the  worship. 

Cassian  tells  us  that  in  Italy  the  Fifty-first  and  Nine- 
tieth Psalms  were  sung  in  addition  to  the  Sixty-third,  the 
regular  morning  Psalm,  the  Ninetieth  being  thought  appro- 
priate because  of  the  words  : 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  67 

"  5.  Thou  carriest  them  away  as  with  a  flood  ;  they  are  as  a  sleep  ; 
in  the  morning  they  are  like  grass  which  groweth  up. 

"6.  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth  and  groweth  up  ;  in  the  evening 
is  cut  down  and  withereth." 

Frequently  the  Psalms  were  selected  with  reference  to 
their  appropriateness  to  those  hours  at  which  occurred  the 
condemnation,  crucifixion,  burial  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ;  thus  the  Twenty-second  Psalm,  "My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me,"  etc.,  was  a  crucifixion 
Psalm. 

In  all  of  the  nocturnal  services,  or  the  vigils.  Psalms  were 
sung,  but  seldom  were  any  fixed  for  stated  singing.  When 
the  Matutina  or  new  morning  services  were  begun  in  Beth- 
lehem, and  were  fixed  at'6  o'clock,  the  Fifty-first  Psalm  was 
appointed  to  be  sung  as  a  Psalm  of  confession  : 

"  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  according  to  thy  loving  kindness  ; 
according  unto  the  multitude  of  thy  tender  mercies  blot  out  my  trans- 
gressions," etc. 

In  other  places,  however,  this  Psalm  was  sung  at  the 
close  of  the  nocturnal  devotions  or  at  the  break  of  day. 

In  Egypt,  the  vigils  were  concluded  with  the  One 
hundred  and  forty-eighth.  One  hundred  and  forty-ninth,  and 
One  hundred  and  fiftieth  Psalms.  St.  Basil,  speaking  of 
these  vigils,  says  that  ' '  the  people  rise  while  it  is  yet  night, 
and  come  to  the  place  of  prayer,  and  there,  with  much 
labor  and  affliction  and  contrition  and  tears,  make  confession 
of  their  sins  to  God." 

' '  When  this  is  done,  they  rise  from  prayer,  and  dispose 
themselves  to  Psalmody  ;  sometimes  dividing  themselves  into 
two  parts,  they  answer  one  another  in  singing,  or  sing 
alternately  ;  after  this  again,  they  permit  one  alone  to  begin 
the  Psalm,  and  the  rest  join  in  the  close  of  every  verse. 
And  thus,  with  this  variety  of  Psalmody,  they  carry  on  the 
night,  praying  betwixt  whiles,  or  intermingling  prayers, 
with  their  Psalms.  At  last,  when  the  day  begins  to  dawn, 
they  all  in  common,  as  with  one  mouth  and  one  heart,  offer 
up  to  God  the  Psalm  of  confession  (Fifty-first),  every  one 
making  the  words  of  their  Psalm  to  be  the  expression  of  his 
own  repentance. ' ' 

The  number  of  Psalms  sung  at  the  canonical  hours, 


68  David's  haup  in  song  and  story. 

has  differed  in  different  localities  and  ages.  At  first  there 
was  no  uniform  rule  on  this  point,  each  monastery  having 
been  left  to  its  own  choice. 

Cassian  tells  us  that  in  Egypt,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Monastic  life,  the  monks,  in  some  places,  sang  ten  Psalms  in 
immediate  succession  ;  in  other  places  eighteen  were  sung  ; 
in  others  twenty  ;  in  some  as  high  as  fifty  were  sung  without 
intermission.  At  last,  by  common  consent,  the  number  for 
the  morning  and  evening  was  reduced  to  twelve  Psalms. 
After  the  full  complement  of  canonical  hours  was  intro- 
duced, many  monasteries  regulated  the  number  of  the 
Psalms  by  the  number  of  the  hour — three  Psalms  at  the 
third  hour,  six  at  the  sixth,  nine  at  the  ninth.  Finally,  the 
custom  was  established  of  singing  only  three  Psalms  at  all 
the  diurnal  hours,  the  singing  of  the  twelve  being  reserved 
for  the  regular  morninof  and  eveninsf  service. 

o  o  o 

The  Psalms  in  the  vigils  of  the  night  usually  numbered 
more  than  during  the  day,  in  some  monasteries  as  high  as 
sixty  being  sung. 

In  the  Galilean  church,  at  the  time  of  the  second 
council  of  Tours,  an  order  prevailed  differing  from  that  of 
the  eastern  countries.  In  one  of  the  canons  of  this  council, 
which  met  about  the  year  567  A.  D.,  it  was  ordered  that 
the  new  morning  service,  beginning  at  6  o'clock,  should  be 
performed  with  six  antiphonies  and  two  Psalms,  in  the 
height  of  summer ;  in  September  there  were  to  be  seven 
antiphonies  and  two  Psalms  ;  in  October,  eight  antiphonies 
and  three  Psalms  ;  in  November,  nine  antiphonies  and  three 
Psalms  ;  in  January  and  February  until  Easter,  ten  anti- 
phonies and  three  Psalms.  At  the  sixth  hour,  there  were  to 
be  six  Psalms  and  the  Allelujah,  and  at  the  twelfth  hour, 
twelve  Psalms  and  the  Allelujah.  In  the  month  of  August, 
there  were  to  be  manications — early  matins,  or  morning 
service,  without  Psalms,  because  it  was  the  harvest  time, 
and  men  were  in  haste  to  go  to  their  labors. 

This  nocturnal  Psalm-singing  was  increased  to  almost 
perpetual  Psalmody  in  the  vigils  preceding  the  days  appointed 
for  great  festive  occasions.  These  special  days  grew  in 
number,  till  there  was  an  average  of  two  for  each  week. 


TTIK  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  69 

The  Psalmody  in  the  monasteries  was  usually  performed  in 
a  standing  posture,  and  after  the  manner  of  the  church 
itself.  In  Egyptian  monasteries,  only  the  leader  sang,  and 
he  ' '  with  a  plain,  even  voice. ' '  In  some  cases  more  than 
one  person  was  appointed  to  conduct  the  singing,  in  which 
case  one  person  would  follow  another  ;  if  there  were  four 
persons,  each  would  chant  three  of  the  twelve  Psalms  ;  if 
three,  each  would  chant  four  ;  if  two,  each  would  chant  six 
Psalms.  Never  more  than  four  persons  were  appointed  at 
one  time. 

Beside  the  regular  monasteries,  there  were  other  com- 
munities of  ascetics,  which  practiced  what  they  called  per- 
petual Psalmody.  This  custom  was  begun  by  the  Watchers, 
founded  in  Constantinople  during  the  fifth  century,  Ijy 
Alexander,  a  monk.  They  divided  themselves  into  three 
classes,  which  succeeded  each  other  at  stated  hours,  so  that 
the  exercises  of  prayer  and  praise  never  ceased.  This  they 
carried  on,  day  and  night,  to  guard  against  the  incursions  of 
midday  and  midnight  devils.  Besides  these,  were  the 
Graziers,  who  lived  after  the  manner  of  flocks  and  herds, 
and  who  performed  their  Psalm-singing  in  the  fields  and 
mountains  as  their  cloisters.  It  was  contrary  to  their 
custom  to  dwell  in  a  house,  to  eat  bread  or  flesh  and  to  drink 
wine.  They  would  usually  sing  and  pray  till  meal -time  and 
then  take  their  knives  and  cut  grass  for  their  food.  In  the 
nunneries,  the  customs  of  the  Psalmody  as  performed  in  the 
monasteries  were  followed.  St.  Jerome  speaks  of  virgins 
sinofinsf  Psalms  at  the  canonical  hours  and  in  the  nisfht  visfils, 
and  says  they  were  ol)liged  to  learn  portions  of  the  Psalter 
every  day. 

After  the  revolution  produced  by  the  Northern  hordes, 
though  the  monastic  institutions  underwent  some  changes, 
yet  the  canonical  hours,  and  the  Psalms  for  those  hours  were 
retained.  Cassian,  writing  about  the  fifth  century,  says,  in 
a  vindication  of  the  Egyptian  monks,  what  may  be  said  of 
those  in  the  West :  "Our  elders  have  not  changed  the  an- 
cient customs  of  singing,  but  the  devotions  are  performed 
in  the  same  manner  as  formerly  in  the  meetings  l)y  night. 
The  hymns,  which  it  had  been  the  custom  to  sing  at  the  end 


70  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

of  the  night  vigils,  were  the  same  hymns  they  sing  at  this 
day,  namely,  the  iifty-first.  Sixty-third,  Ninetieth  and  One 
hundred  and  forty-ninth."  The  changes  of  St.  Benedict 
referred  to  agriculture,  the  distribution  of  monastic  duties, 
the  conduct  of  the  monks  in  sleeping,  eating,  &c. 

Not  only  was  the  ancient  Psalm-singing  continued  by 
Benedict,  but  there  was  in  his  order  something  of  the  early 
enthusiasm  of  Psalmody.  The  Benedictines  were  "  ad- 
vised to  separate  the  soul  from  the  body  by  divine  contem- 
plations and  for  that  purpose  to  emaciate  and  enervate  the 
body  by  watching  and  singing  of  Psalms. ' '  Benedict  de- 
sired to  divide  the  day  equally  between  agricultural  pursuits 
and  religious  exercises  ;  but  many  of  his  disciples  forgot  the 
rules  of  their  leader  and  spent  their  days  in  singing  and 
prayer.  The  fanaticism  among  such  became  so  great,  as 
we  are  informed  by  Fosbrook,  that  the  ' '  best  man  was 
looked  on  as  a  barrel  organ  set  to  Psalm  tunes  ;  and  this 
was  carried  to  such  excess  in  some  places  that  the}'  estab- 
lished the  Laus  Perennis  or  Perpetual  Psalmody — an  infinite 
series  of  psalmody  continued  by  relays  of  monks  day  and 
night  forever  without  coming  to  an  end.  Not  to  wonder, 
when  Psalm- singing  was  in  high  repute,  that  the  monks 
should  soon  get  up  some  marvelous  tales  about  St.  Benedict, 
the  founder  of  their  order  ;  it  was  asserted  that  he  sang 
Psalms  in  his  mother's  womb  ;  and,  at  his  birth,  came  sing- 
ing into  the  world. ' ' 

About  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  Columba,  an 
Irishman,  founded  many  churches  and  monasteries  among 
the  Irish  and  Scots.  He  was  of  royal  blood,  and  was  born, 
521,  in  Gastan,  County  of  Tyrconnel,  Ireland.  In  563  or 
565,  "  he  set  out  in  a  wicker  boat,  covered  with  hides,  ac- 
companied by  twelve  of  his  friends  and  followers,  and 
landed  in  the  isle  of  Hi,  or  lona,  near  the  confines  of  the 
Scottish  and  Pictish  territories, ' '  being  resolved  to  l^ecome 
the  Apostle  of  the  Highlands. 

' '  By  the  preaching  and  virtues  of  Columba,  many  of  the 
northern  Picts  were  led  to  embrace  Christianity,  who  gave 
him  the  small  island  on  which  he  first  landed.  Here  he 
built  his  monastery,  which   became  the  chief  seminary  of 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  71 

learning  of  that  time,  perhaps  in  Europe,  and  the  nursery 
from  which  not  only  the  monasteries  of  his  own  island,  and 
above  three  hundred  churches,  which  he  himself  had  estab- 
lished, but  also  many  of  those  in  neighboring  nations,  were 
supplied  with  learned  divines  and  able  pastors.  In  this 
seminary,  which  might  justly  he  called  a  missionary  college, 
the  students  spent  much  of  their  time  in  reading,  and  in 
transcribing  the  Scriptures  and  sacred  hymns,  which  Co- 
lumba  was  at  pains  should  be  done  with  the  greatest  care 
and  accuracy,  in  which  he  was  surprisingly  successful. ' ' 

Columba,  like  Basil,  Athanasius  and  Benedict,  was  a 
monk  and  a  Psalm-singer,  and  taught  the  singing  of  the 
Psalms  in  his  monastery.  A  part  of  each  day's  duties  for 
his  pupils  was  the  copying  of  the  Psalter.  On  one  occasion 
Baithen,  a  disciple  of  Columba,  requested  that  a  Psalter 
which  he  had  copied  should  be  examined  by  one  of  his 
brethren,  but  Columba  replied  that  it  had  already  been  ex- 
amined, and  that  there  was  but  oiie  error  in  it,  which  was 
the  absence  of  the  letter  i  from  a  word. 

It  is  not  until  the  time  of  Benedict  and  Columba  that 
we  find  the  Psalms  a  part  of  the  disciplinary  inflictions  of 
the  monasteries.  It  was  a  custom,  in  the  old  English  mon- 
asteries, to  line  the  monks  who  w^ere  rich  according  to  their 
wealth,  but  to  impose  a  penalty  of  singing  fifty  Psalms  on 
those  unable  to  pay  a  fine  in  money. 

In  the  rules  of  Columba  it  was  ordained,  "A  year's 
penance  for  him  who  loses  a  consecrated  wafer  ;  six 
months  for  him  who  lets  it  turn  red  ;  forty  days  for  him 
who  contemptuously  flings  it  into  the  water  ;  twenty  days 
for  him  who  brings  it  up  through  weakness  of  stomach. 
He  who  neglects  his  Amen  to  the  Benedicite,  who  speaks 
when  eating,  who  forgets  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross 
on  his  spoon,  or  on  a  lantern  lighted  by  a  younger  brother, 
is  to  receive  six  or  twelve  stripes  as  the  case  may  deserve, 
and  repeat  twelve  Psalms  .  .  .  Fif t}^  stripes  for  him  who 
does  not  kneel  at  prayer,  who  has  sung  badly  or  has 
coughed  while  chanting  the  Psalms." 

In  the  flogging  of  the  monks,  a  valuation  of  so  many 
Psalms  was  placed  alongside  of  so   many   lashes,  and  when 


72  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  valuation  superceded  what  was  demanded  by  individuals 
for  penance  or  penalty,  the  superabundant  value  of  stripes 
went  into  a  common  fund  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  could 
not  pay  what  they  owed. 

' '  The  monks  of  Fonte  Avellana  determined  that  thirty 
Psalms  sung  with  an  accompaniment  of  one  hundred  lashes 
to  each  Psalm,  making  three  thousand  lashes,  should  be  set 
off  for  one  year  of  purgatory.  By  a  fantastic  species  of 
arithmetic  three  thousand  lashes  were  valued  at  £4.  The 
whole  Psalter,  with  fifteen  thousand  lashes,  was  set  off  for 
five  years;  and  twenty  Psalters  with  thirty  thousand  lashes 
entered  into  the  book  of  the  Recording  Angel  as  receipt  in 
full  for  one  hundred  years  of  purgatory.  This  scale  seems 
to  have  been  sanctioned  by  the  Pope. ' ' 

None  was  more  ambitious,  if  we  may  believe  a  legend, 
to  lay  up  this  kind  of  spiritual  and  heavenly  treasure  than 
St.  Dominic,  the  Cuirassier — so  called  from  wearing  an  iron 
cuirass  next  his  skin.  He  taxed  himself  ordinarily  at  ten 
Psalters  and  thirty  thousand  lashes  for  each  day  :  at  which 
rate,  three  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  purgatory 
could  be  redeemed  in  a  single  year.  During  Lent,  the  ordi- 
nary task  was  not  suflBcient  for  this  benevolent  monk.  His 
superiors  were  petitioned  to  supplement  till  his  daily  task 
was  two  and  a  half  Psalters  and  thirty-four  thousand  five 
hundred  stripes  for  each  day,  the  valuation  of  one  hundred 
years  of  purgatory.  But  even  this  did  not  satisfy  him. 
During  Lent  again,  he  petitioned  for  the  privilege  of  redeem- 
ing one  thousand  years  of  purgatory.  During  the  forty 
days  of  Lent,  says  Damian,  he  sang  two  hundred  Psalters 
and  inflicted  sixty  millions  of  stripes  !  Well  might  Yepes 
say  of  this  saint,  "1  neither  know  how  his  head  should  be 
capable  of  repeating  so  many  Psalms,  nor  how  his  arms 
should  have  strength  to  give  him  so  many  blows,  nor  how 
his  flesh  should  be  able  to  endure  so  inhuman  a  battery. ' ' 
But  as  the  legend  runs,  St.  Dominic  gained  flesh  under  his 
castigations.  His  appetite  grew  by  what  it  fed  on  until,  in 
jockey  phrase,  he  flogged  himself  against  time.  He  com- 
menced one  evening  singing  and  flogging  and  in  twenty-four 
hours  went  twelve  times  through  the  Psalter  and  had  be^un 


J 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  73 

the  thirteenth  and  gone  to  beati  qaorum  in  the  Thirty-second 
Psalm,  taking  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  thousand  one 
hundred  lashes,  equal  to  sixty-one  years,  twelve  days  and 
thirty-three  minutes  of  purgatory  !  !  Now  as  old  St.  Dom- 
inic only  sinned  once,  in  accepting  the  present  of  a  furred 
robe,  he  stood  creditor  to  an  immense  amount  on  the  angel's 
books;  but  as  no  good  works  are  lost,  all  went  to  the  great 
sinking  fund  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. ' '  Pietro  Dami- 
ano,  a  cardinal  and  saint,  related  these  events  as  occurring 
to  his  own  personal  knowledge.  His  relation  of  them  is  in 
a  letter  written  to  Pope  Alexander  II.  "A  Protestant  might 
have  asked  how  Dominic  counted  the  stripes  while  singing 
the  Psalms,  artid  also  what  he-came  of  tJie  cuirass  all  the  time^ 
for  it  has  been  well  said,  if  he  kept  it  on,  he  might  have 
laid  on  as  lustily  as  Sancho  on  the  trees,  and  still  have  kept 
a  whole  skin. ' ' 

In  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins, 
founded  by  Elector  Frederick  the  Wise,  the  community 
had  accumulated  vast  fortunes  in  spiritual  treasures,  which 
was  to  be  set  at  the  disposal  of  its  members  to  help  them  on 
the  road  to  salvation.  They  were  entitled  to  draw  on  a 
fund  of  no  less  than  six  thousand,  four  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  masses  ;  three  thousand,  five  hundred  and  fifty  entire 
Psalters  ;  two  hundred  thousand  rosaries,  besides  eleven 
thousand  prayers  of  the  Patroness  of  St.  Ursula,  and  "six 
hundred  and  thirty-eleven  thousand  Paternosters  and  Ave 
Marias." 

It  was  partly  because  many  of  the  monks  had  come  be- 
hind in  their  yearly  penance  of  Psalters  and  stripes — some 
of  them  to  the  extent  of  three  hundred  years  in  purgatory, 
and  nine  hundred  thousand  lashes,  valued  at  £1,200 — that 
the  Crusades  took  so  largely  from  these  monastic  orders. 
The  Pope  proclaimed  pardon  and  exemption  to  all  who 
would  go  in  the  Crusades. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  history  of  the  Psalms  as 
they  are  connected  with  the  monasteries,  is  in  the  art  of 
illuminating  and  illustrating  manuscripts,  as  it  was  carried 
on  extensively  by  the  monks  in  their  cells.  The  copying  of 
the  Scriptures  .in  letters  of  gold  was  called  chrysographia. 


74  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

or  gold  writing.  It  is  evidently  very  ancient  in  its  origin, 
having  existed  among  the  Arabs,  and  probably  among  the 
Jews,  long  before  the  Christian  era.  The  copy  of  the  sa- 
cred book  sent  to  Ptolemy  by  the  high  priest  Eleazar,  and 
presented  to  him  by  the  seventy-two  interpreters,  was  writ- 
ten upon  the  finest  vellum  in  letters  of  gold. 

A  number  of  Psalters  are  preserved  embellished  richly 
with  gold  letters  and  pictures. 

Among  the  legacies  of  Count  Everard  we  find  be- 
queathed to  his  son  Beringarius,  a  Psalter  written  in  letters 
of  gold.  Of  the  few  books  belonging  to  the  first  church 
erected  at  Canterbury,  England,  was  ' '  a  Psalter  ornamented 
with  a  miniature  painting  of  Samuel,  the  Priest,  and  adorned 
on  the  outside  with  the  image  of  Christ  and  the  four  evan- 
gelists on  a  plate  of  silver."  A  Latin  Psalter,  ornamented 
with  most  beautiful  miniatures  and  richly  illuminated  for 
Kichard  II.  when  but  a  youth,  is  preserved  in  the  Cottonian 
Library.  It  contains  a  calendar  and  various  tables,  besides 
hymns  and  the  Athanasian  Creed.  The  King  is  represented 
in  different  places  on  his  knees  before  the  Virgin  Mary,  who 
has  the  infant  Jesus  in  her  arms. 

Charlemagne,  while  King  of  the  Franks,  had  a  Psalter 
executed  in  letters  of  gold  to  present  to  Pope  Hadrian  II. , 
as  the  dedicatory  verses,  written  by  himself,  state.  The 
Psalter  is  written  on  vellum  and  is  a  large  octavo  volume. 

Scaliger  tells  us  "his  grandmother  had  a  Psalter,  the 
cover  of  which  was  two  inches  thick,  in  the  inside  of  which 
was  a  kind  of  cupboard  wherein  was  a  silver  crucifix,  and 
behind  it  the  name  of  Berenica  Codrona,  de  la  Scala. ' ' 

A  Latin  Psalter,  with  an  interlinear  Saxon  version,  of 
the  ninth  century,  is  decorated  on  the  exterior  of  the  oaken 
boards  with  which  it  is  bound,  with  a  large  brass  crucifix, 
about  seven  or  eight  inches  in  height,  formerly,  perhaps, 
covered  or  washed  with  silver. 

Ervene,  one  of  the  teachers  of  Wolstan,  and  Bishop  of 
Worcester,  to  encourage  his  pupils  to  learn  to  read,  had  a 
Psalter  and  Sacramentary  prepared  whose  capital  letters 
were  written  in  gold. 

In  the  Cotton  Library  is  a  Psalter  said  to  have  been 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  75 

used  by  Athelstan,  in  Saxon  letters,  written  in  T03.  Every 
Psalm  is  begun  with  gilt  capitals,  with  a  title  preceding  it 
in  red  letters.     It  has  several  ornamental  paintings. 

Longfellow,  in  his  History  of  Poetry,  gives  an  idea  of 
an  ancient  glee-man  from  an  illuminated  manuscript  of  the 
Psalms.  The  picture  is  "a  frontispiece  to  the  Psalms  of 
David.  The  great  Psalmist  sits  upon  his  throne  with  a  harp 
in  his  hand  and  his  masters  of  sacred  song  about  him.  Belo^v 
stands  the  glee-man  throwing  three  balls  and  three  knives 
alternately  into  the  air  and  catching  them  as  they  fall,  like 
a  modern  juggler." 

In  the  Egerton  Collection  is  a  Psalter,  the  corners  of 
of  whose  binding  are  carved  ivory.  To  protect  the  fragile 
binding  it  is  encased  in  a  portable  glass  box.  The  one  side 
presents  six  incidents  in  the  life  of  King  David;  the  other, 
six  works  of  mercy.  A  small  shield  with  the  text  is  placed 
between  the  figures  in  each.  The  figures  are  flat  in  execu- 
tion, but  the  interlacing  bands,  strongly  resembling  the  Saxon 
style  of  ornament,  the  graceful,  though  nondescript,  animals 
that  fill  up  the  interstices,  the  borders,  beautiful  exceedingly, 
that  surround  each  side,  are  exquisite  in  execution  and  taste. 
The  middle  of  each  f  oliaged  scroll  is  finished  with  a  turquoise, 
the  centre  ornaments  have  rubies,  and  scarcely  could  Queen 
Victoria  receive  a  more  royal  gift-book  than  this  remain  of 
an  age  termed  dark  and  barbarous.  The  Psalter  belonged 
to  one  of  the  queens  of  Jerusalem  about  the  twelfth  century. 

In  1299  Godfrey,  abbot  of  Peterborough,  presented  to 
an  Italian  cardinal  ' '  a  Psalter  written  in  letters  of  azure  and 
gold  and  wonderfully  illuminated."  In  the  Arundel  collec- 
tion is  a  Prayer-book  containing  a  Psalter  and  antiphonal, 
the  gift-book  of  Robert  de  Lyle  to  his  daughter  Audfrey. 
"The  chief  fault  of  the  specimen  is  its  profusion  of  gold. 
Nearly  all  the  pictures  are  on  a  burnished  gold  ground  ;  and 
so  thick  has  the  sizing  been  laid  on,  that  in  some  instances 
the  figures  seem  sunk  within  it.  With  the  initial  letters, 
raised  gold  forms  the  letter  and  the  most  grraceful  foliaae 
enriches  it,  and  sweeps  downward  almost  to  the  foot  of  the 
page.  Lighter  foliage,  vine  or  iv}^  leaves,  some  green,  some 
bright  gold,  waves  around  the  heavier  portions  and  the  masses 


76  David's  harp  in  song  and  sxoRr. 

of  shade  and  color  are  further  carried  off  by  most  delicate 
flourishes,  with  the  finest  pen.  The  music  of  the  Psalter  is 
on  four  red  lines.  A  border  encircles  some  of  the  pages,  fin- 
ished off  with  fine  pen  flourishes,  and  sometimes  with  a  small 
vignette.  These  consist  of  birds  and  beasts.  Figures  of 
the  prophets  and  saints  in  oral  meditation,  on  a  ground  of 
bright  pierced  gold,  and  delicate  armorial  bearings,  also  meet 
us.  The  initial  letter  of  the  Eighty-first  Psalm  encloses 
King  David,  not  playing  on  a  harp,  but  striking  a  row  of 
silver  bells,  like  a  true  Saxon,  with  hammers.  Two  figures, 
one  playing  the  violin,  and  the  other  the  bagpipe,  support 
him;  two  graceful  figures  with  a  harp  and  a  small  organ, 
occupy  the  lower  corner  of  the  page,  and  above  two  angels 
are  blowing  burnished  trumpets.  The  initial  letter  of  the 
Ninety-third  Psalm  gives  us  a  group  of  choristers  singing 
from  a  long  roll  of  music;  the  One  hundred  and  tenth  Psalm 
(Dixit  Dominus)  has  a  representtition  of  the  Trinity  finely 
drawn,  and  the  whole  page  is  gorgeously  ornamented. ' ' 

There  is  a  story  told  of  the  Cathack,  a  beautiful  manu- 
script copy  of  the  Psalms,  said  to  have  been  written  by  St. 
Columba.  To  exhibit  veneration  for  the  memory  of  this 
great  saint,  this  Psalter  was  enshrined  in  a  magnificent  case, 
was  carried  as  a  sacred  standard  before  the  army  in  liattle 
and  was  so  highly  venerated  from  age  to  age,  that  it  came 
to  be  employed  as  a  solemn  sanction  in  the  taking  of  oaths. 
But  the  opening  of  this  mysterious  Psalter  was  forbidden 
forever  under  the  pain  of  some  awful  calamit3^ 

In  the  monasteries  of  the  present  day,  which  may  be 
found  in  almost  every  country  under  the  sun,  the  ancient 
rules  of  Psalmody  are  to  a  great  extent  followed.  The 
Psalms  are  distributed  throughout  their  liturgies  for  regular 
reading  and  singing. 

In  the  East,  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  Palestine, 
Mesopotamia,  Syria,  where  the  ascetic  system  took  its  rise, 
may  be  seen,  everywhere,  monastic  buildings,  some  of  which 
are  very  ancient,  and  all  of  which  are  still  occupied  by  a  few 
miserable  and  idle  male  and  female  monks.  The  lil)raries  of 
these  monasteries  are  mostly  composed  of  well-thumbed  lit- 
urgies, in  which  the  Psalms  always  hold  a  prominent  place. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  77 

Lazy  pilgrims  may  be  met  with  who  will  perform  upon  one 
another  the  rite  of  baptism  in  the  Jordan,  or  Red  Sea,  sing- 
ing, as  they  baptize,  the  Psalms  with  a  loud  and  boisteious 
noise. 

But  the  history  of  the  Psalms  in  the  middle  ages  is  not 
confined  to  the  monasteries  or  to  the  churches  whose  ritual 
corresponded  closely  to  that  used  by  the  monks.  Their 
story  is  part  of  the  every-day  life  of  the  era,  and  is  always 
identified  with  the  devoutness  of  such  zealous  Christians  as 
survived  the  general  decay. 

The  great  Gregory,  who  was  raised  to  the  papal  chair 
in  590,  exhibited  much  attachment  to  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
which  he  knew  by  heart,  and  so  loved  the  Psalms  that  he 
obliged  his  attendants  to  sing  them  with  him  when  on  his 
deathbed. 

Charlemagne,  the  renowned  warrior  of  France,  whose 
name  is  associated  with  the  military  achievements  of  the 
close  of  the  eighth  and  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
manifested  great  fondness  for  Psalm-singing.  In  his  youth 
he  had  committed  the  Psalms  to  memory,  and  afterward 
sang  them  to  the  day  of  his  death.  A  frequent  charge  of 
his  to  the  priests  was  that  they  should  gain  proper  views  of 
the  Scriptures  and  commit  the  Psalms  to  memory.  He  also 
recommended  that  when  the  Bishops  and  Abbots  would  have 
the  poor  with  them  at  their  meals,  they  should  associate 
psalmody  with  their  feasting.  From  his  memorizing  the 
Psalms,  Alcuin,  the  historian  of  Charlemagne,  has  called 
him  David. 

A  Latin  Psalter,  owned  by  Hildegard,  wife  of  Charle- 
magne, and  used  by  her  during  her  lifetime,  was,  after  her 
death,  presented  by  the  Emperor  to  the  Cathedral  of  Bre- 
men, where  it  was  kept  for  several  centuries,  and  annually 
exhibited  to  wondering  and  admiring  multitudes. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  a  custom,  largely 
observed  in  Roman  Catholic  countries,  of  perambulating, 
with  great  pomj)  and  ceremony,  the  boundaries  of  the  parish. 
This  was  done  on  what  were  called  Gauge  days — the  Mon- 
day, Tuesday  and  Wednesday  before  Holy  Thursday  or  As- 
cension Day.     In   the  procession  were  borne  banners,  bells 


78  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

and  lights,  while  occasionally  the  people  engaged  in  singing 
Psalms  and  listenetl  to  the  haranofuino;  of  some  monk  or 
priest,  having  the  One  hundred  and  fourth  Psalm  as  his 
theme.  The  Psalms  sung  were  thanksgiving  psalms,  such 
as  exhi])ited  best  the  festivities  and  hilarities  of  the  occasion. 

This  custom  of  religious  processions  originated  at  a 
very  early  day,  and  was  observed  especially  at  funerals  and 
marriages.  Afterward  it  was  adopted  by  the  Arians,  who 
awakened  enthusiasm  by  their  torchlight  processions  at 
night  and  their  vociferous  singing  of  Arian  hymns.  After 
the  fourth  or  fifth  century  processions  were  frequent  in  con- 
nection with  the  installation  of  bishops,  the  consecration  of 
relics,  at  feasts  of  thanksgiving,  and  often  on  occasions  of 
danger  or  calamity.  ' '  Through  the  influence  of  Mamertus, 
Bishop  of  Vienna,  450  A.  D.,  and  Gregory  the  Great,  pro- 
cessions became  a  regular  ceremony  which  recurred  at  stated 
times,  when  the  Gospels,  costly  crucifixes  and  banners, 
torches  and  burning  candals,  relics,  pictures  of  the  Virgin 
and  of  saints,  were  carried  about,  and  Psalms  or  hymns 
suno;.  The  religious  services  on  these  occasions  were  called 
Litanies.  The}^  consisted  of  prayers,  and  of  the  invocation 
of  saints  and  angels,  to  which  the  people  made  response, 
'  Ora  pro  nobis  !  '  " 

Sometimes,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  we  meet  with  the 
Psalms  in  the  novel  customs  of  divination.  This  is  at  times 
called  bibliomancy,  at  other,  sortes  sacrae,  or  sacred  lots, 
and  consisted  in  a  sudden  dipping  into  the  Bible,  or  a  sud- 
den entrance  into  a  religious  assembly  and  a  noting  of  the 
passage  first  striking  the  eye  or  the  ear.  This  practice  was 
a  relic  of  heathenism,  pagans  at  a  very  early  day  observing 
it  with  the  poems  of  Homer  and  Virgil.  Though  it  was  re- 
peatedly prohibited  by  successive  councils  in  the  fifth,  sixth, 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  yet  it  prevailed  extensively  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Prominent  in  these  divina- 
tions were  the  Psalms,  which  became  the  oracle  to  which 
many  resorted  for  intimations  of  the  future. 

When  Clovis,  the  King  of  the  Franks,  was  about  to  go 
to  war  with  the  Goths  of  Spain,  he  asked  of  heaven  that  he 
might  have  some  revelation  of  the  success  of  his  project. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  79 

As  he  entered  the  Church  of  St.  Martin,  whither  he  had 
gone  for  the  divine  intimation,  the  choir  was  singing  those 
words  in  the  Eighteenth  Psalm,  "  Thou  hast  given  me  the 
necks  of  mine  enemies,  that  I  might  destroy  them  that  hate 
me.  They  cried  but  there  was  none  to  save  them,  even  unto 
the  Lord,  but  he  answered  them  not. ' '  This  satisfied  the 
superstitious  monarch,  and  he  went  from  the  church  con- 
vinced that  heaven  had  decreed  victory  for  him.  Biblio- 
mancy  was  resorted  to  frequently  in  appointing  bishops,  in 
which  case,  after  a  fast  of  three  days,  the  Psalms,  the  Epis- 
tles of  St.  Paul  and  the  Gospels  were  placed  on  one  side  of 
the  altar,  and  on  the  other  side  small  billets  having  on  them 
the  names  of  the  candidates  for  the  office.  On  one  of  these 
occasions  when  St.  Agnan  was  chosen,  it  was  done  by  St. 
Euvert  calling  a  child  and  requiring  it  to  act  in  the  Sacred 
Lots.  The  child  took  up  a  billet  that  had  the  name  of  St. 
Agnan  written  on  it.  That  the  multitude  might  be  satisfied 
that  the  call  was  of  God,  Euvert  took  the  Psalter  and 
opened  suddenly  where  it  said:  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whom 
thou  choosest  and  causest  to  approach  unto  thee,  that  he 
may  dwell  in  thy  courts. "  Opening  in  the  Epistle  of  St. 
Paul  he  found  ;  "  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay,  than 
that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ."  In  the  Gospels  he 
found :  "  Upon  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church,  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  These  testimo- 
nies were  satisfactory,  and  St.  Agnan  was  proclaimed  bishop. 

This  custom  was  continued  in  the  cathedrals  at  Boulogne, 
Ypres,  and  at  St.  Omer  till  a  period  as  late  as  1744,  the  prac- 
tice at  Boulogne  differing  from  that  of  earlier  times  in  that 
the  Psalms  only  were  used  in  the  divination. 

The  Psalms  were  sung  in  the  canonization  of  the  saints. 
From  ten  to  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  some  illustrious 
servant  of  the  Church,  canonization  began  by  the  proper 
authorities  pitching  a  tent  over  the  grave  of  the  dead.  Around 
the  tent  stood  the  great  body  of  the  attendants,  whose  office 
it  was  to  chant  the  Psalms,  while  the  Superior,  accompanied 
by  the  more  aged  of  the  brotherhood,  entered  the  tent,  opened 
the  grave,  and  prepared  the  bones,  by  washing  and  carefully 


80  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

wrapping  them  in  linen  or  silk,  for  their  deposition  in  the 
mortuary  chest. 

Psalm-singing  accompanied  unction  at  sick-beds.  It 
was  customary  lo  perform  unction  on  the  eyelids,  ears,  lips, 
nostrils,  neck,  shoulders,  breast,  hands,  feet  and  the  princi- 
pal ])arts  affected  by  pain,  a  Psalm  being  chanted  after  each 
unction.  If  the  sick  died,  the  priests  walked  in  front  of 
the  bier  to  the  church  and  thence  to  the  cemetery,  chanting 
Psalms. 

In  the  dedication  of  churches  during  the  Middle  A^es, 
Psalm-singing  was  a  prominent  feature  of  the  ceremonies. 
The  night  preceding  the  solemn  occasion  was  spent  in  watch- 
ing and  prayer.  In  the  morning,  the  prelates,  dressed  in 
their  pontifical  robes,  repaired  to  the  porch  of  the  church. 
Here  the  principal  consecrator  struck  the  door  thrice  with 
his  crozier,  saying,  "  Lift  up  your  gates,  O  ye  princes  ;  and 
be  ye  lifted  up,  O  eternal  gates,  and  the  King  of  glory  shall 
come  in."  At  the  third  stroke  the  door  was  opened.  As 
the  procession  entered  the  church,  the  choir  sang  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Psalm,  and  the  bishop  exclaimed,  "Peace  to  this 
house  and  all  who  dwell  in  it;  peace  to  those  who  enter  it ! 
Peace  to  those  who  go  out. ' '  Proceeding  to  the  foot  of  the 
altar,  the  consecrators  lay  prostrate  till  the  litany  was  sung  ; 
after  which  one  of  the  bishops  wrote  two  Poman  alphabets 
on  the  floor  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  and  sprinkled  the  altar, 
walls  and  pavements  with  holy  water.  A  prayer  being 
chanted,  the  altars  consecrated  and  mass  said,  the  ceremonies 
ended  with  a  banquet  in  the  Episcopal  palace. 

In  the  devotions  for  the  dead,  the  order  consisted  in 
frequent  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  was  com- 
monly called  a  belt  of  Pater-nosters;  in  the  chanting  of  a 
number  of  Psalms,  and  in  the  people  prostrating  themselves 
upon  their  knees  and  intoning  the  anthem,  "O  Lord,  accord- 
ing to  thy  great  mercy  give  rest  to  his  soul,  and  in  consid- 
eration of  thy  infinite  goodness  grant  that  he  may  enjoy  eter- 
nal light  in  company  of  the  saints." 

In  the  consecration  of  cemeteries,  among  other  cere- 
monies, the  bishop,  followed  by  the  clergy,  walked  around 
the  limits  intended  for  the  burial  of  the  dead,  chanting  the 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  81 

Miserere — Fifty-first  Psalm — and  reading  five  prayers,  one  at 
each  of  the  four  corners  and  one  in  the  middle  of  the  ground. 
Absolution  was  one  of  the  favorite  practices  of  the  Roman 
cleroy,  the  ceremonies  of  which  were  attended  with  great 
pomp.  Ash-Wednesday  was  theitime  appointed  for  this  event. 
In  the  morning  of  this  day,  those  who  wished  the  imposiiion 
of  penance,  on  account  of  some  sin  against  the  Moral  Law,  or 
some  insult  to  religion,  repaired  publicly  to  the  porch  of 
the  church,  barefoot  and  clothed  in  roI)es  of  mourning.  At 
the  proper  time  the  bishop  led  them  into  the  church,  and, 
himself,  lay  prostrate  ])et:ore  the  altar,  while  the  choir  chanted 
Psalms  Thirty-seven,  Fifty,  Fifty-one  and  Fifty-three.  After 
the  offering  of  a  prayer,  the  imposition  of  hands  and  the 
clothing  of  the  head  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  the  penitents, 
after  the  example  of  God's  casting  out  Adam,  were  thrust 
from  the  church,  and  required,  before  their  absolution  would 
take  effect,  to  perform  the  penitential  services  imposed  upon 
them. 

Psalm-singing  mingled  to  some  extent  in  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  Crusades,  which  began  in  the  eleventh  century  and 
continued  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth.  This  was  not  en- 
gaged in  by  the  people,  but  by  the  priests  and  monks  who 
performed  the  offices  of  the  Church  during  the  pilgrimages. 
It  has  been  stated  that  the  Crusades  originated  in  a  misin- 
terpretation of  a  passage  in  the  Psalms.  The  seventh  verse 
of  Psalm  One  hundred  and  thirty-second,  which  is  properly 
rendered  in  the  English  version,  "We  will  worship  at  his 
footstool,"  was  translated  in  the  Vulgate,  "Let  us  adore 
the  Lord  in  the  spot  where  his  feet  were  placed."  Some  of 
the  most  eminent  fathers  of  the  Church,  such  as  Jerome 
and  EuseBius,  considered  this  as  a  prophecy  and  a  command 
requiring  the  faithful  to  visit  the  Holy  City  and  its  sur- 
rounding sacred  spots  for  the  purpose  of  worshiping  God 
where  Christ  himself  had  engaged  in  his  devotions.  Whether 
or  not  this  verse  gave  rise  to  the  Crusades,  certain  it  is  that 
it  was  the  text  of  many  a  flaming  discourse  by  bishops, 
priests  and  monks  in  their  efforts  to  begin  and  carry  on  the 
holy  wars  against  the  infidels  of  the  Holy  Land. 

Among  the  wonderful  tales  of  the  Crusade  era  is  one 


82  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

concerning  the  miraculous  "Psalm-book  of  Quindreda,"  the 
sister  of  St.  Kenelmus.  On  the  eve  of  the  festival  of  St. 
Kenelmus,  at  Winchelcumbe,  a  crowd  of  women  came  from 
all  the  neighboring  places  to  be  present  at  the  festivities 
given  by  the  monks.  During  the  progress  of  the  events 
connected  with  the  occasion,  one  of  the  monks  became  guilty 
of  an  outrage  in  the  corridors  of  the  cloister.  On  the  next 
day  he  carried  the  Psalter  of  Quindreda  in  the  procession; 
but  when  he  wished  to  put  it  down,  the  book  adhered  to 
his  hands.  He  then  remembered  his  sin  of  the  pieceding 
night,  confessed,  offered  penance,  and,  by  the  assistance  of 
the  prayers  of  the  brethren,  succeeded  in  ' '  breaking  the 
chains  the  Divinity  had  imposed  on  him!" 

This  wonderful  Psalter  was  the  means  of  detecting; 
guilt  in  Quindreda  herself.  When  the  body  of  Kenelmus, 
her  brother,  was  being  carried  to  the  grave,  the  people  cried 
out,  "  He  is  a  martyr."  Quindreda  being  suspected  of 
committing  the  murder,  she  attempted  a  defense  by  saying, 
"  Itis  as  true  that  he  has  been  assassinated  as  it  is  true  that 
my  eyes,  drawn  from  my  hand,  are  fastened  on  this  Psalter, " 
Scarcely  had  she  uttered  the  words  till  both  eyes  fell  from 
their  sockets  upon  the  book,  leaving  the  stain  of  blood  upon 
the  leaves.  Such  are  some  of  the  legends  related  by  Bald- 
win, Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  a  journal  written  in 
Wales. 

It  seems  that  this  Psalter  accompanied  the  crusaders  in 
their  marches  and  operated  great  prodigies  by  the  way. 

It  is  an  item  of  no  little  interest  that  after  the  soldiers 
of  the  first  Crusade  scaled  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  July  15th, 
1099,  they  marched  by  the  light  of  burning  buildings,  and 
with  feet  treading  in  blood,  to  the  church  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion, repeating  Psalms. 

The  subject  of  the  various  versions  of  the  Psalms  meets 
us  frequently  during  the  progress  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
Hebrew  was  the  original  language  of  the  Psalter.  There  is 
no  evidence  of  its  having  ])een  rendered  in  any  other  dialect 
until  about  two  hundred  years  before  Christ.  This  was  the 
lano-uao'e  of  the  Tabernacle,  the  Temple,  a  language  that  is 
now  a  dead  tongue,  except  to  some  of  the  Jewish  descend- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  83 

ants,  who  have  preserved  a  knowledge  of  it,  by  its  use  in 
the  religious  services  of  the  synagogues. 

The  dialect  in  which  Christ  and  his  disciples  employed 
the  Psalms  was  the  Greek,  in  what  is  commonly  known  as 
the  Septuagint.  At  what  time  the  Psalms,  with  the  other 
inspired  books,  passed  into  the  native  dialects  of  the  early 
Christian  communities,  is  not  known. 

In  the  West  the  Scriptures  were  at  first  familiar  only 
to  those  who  could  read  the  Greek,  or  who  had  learned  them 
from  those  who  had  carried  them  there.  But  translations 
soon  appeared.  From  Augustine  we  learn  that  the  Latin 
Church  very  early  possessed  a  number  of  versions  in  the 
native  dialect  of  Italy.  That  translation  which  obtained  the 
widest  circulation  passed  under  the  name  of  Vetus  Itala,  or 
Ancient  Italian.  It  was  a  translation  from  the  Septuagint, 
and  not  from  the  Hebrew,  there  being  few  in  the  Western 
Church  that  were  at  that  time  acquainted  with  the  native 
language  of  the  Jews.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  prepared 
in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century,  as  it  is  mentioned  by 
Tertullian  before  the  close  of  that  century. 

It  was  from  this  old  Italic  that  the  Psalms  were  sung 
by  the  western  Christians  for  nearly  three  hundred  years. 
But  before  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  the  Italic  ver- 
sion of  the  Scriptures  became  extremely  faulty,  owing  to 
errors  in  the  copying  of  it  from  time  to  time.  These  errors 
gave  opportunity  to  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  especially 
to  the  Jews,  to  cavil  concerning  the  doctrines  and  fidelity  of 
the  Christians.  To  remedy  the  evils  and  silence  the  objec- 
tions of  enemies,  Jerome,  under  the  patronage  of  Pope  Da- 
masus,  undertook  first  a  revision  of  the  old  version,  and  after- 
wards an  entirely  new  one.  The  corrected  edition  appeared 
A.  D.  390  or  391.  The  Psalms,  which  are  all  that  remain 
of  this  edition,  were  called  the  Roman  Psalter,  because  it 
began  the  soonest,  and  lasted  the  longest  in  the  Roman  offices. 
Its  use  began  in  the  churches  of  Gaul  almost  as  soon  as  at 
Rome,  and  prevailed  there  until,  in  the  sixth  century,  Gre- 
gory of  Tours,  introduced  that  known  as  the  Gallican 
Psalter. 

The  Gallican  Psalter  was  also  prepared  by  Jerome.     It 


84:  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

was  made  from  Origen's  corrected  edition  of  the  Greek  ver- 
sion, but,  where  the  Greek  was  supposed  faulty,  the  render- 
ing was  taken  directly  from  the  Hebrew;  this  Psalter  was 
completed  in  389  and  was  first  used  in  Gaul,  hence  called 
Galilean.  From  Gaul  it  passed  into  the  worship  of  the  Eng- 
lish churches,  and  into  those  of  Germany  and  Spain.  But 
in  Rome,  Jerome's  first  corrected  edition  continued  in  use, 
though  the  popes  connived  at  its  introduction  in  the  western 
churches,  even  in  those  of  some  parts  of  Italy.  This  ver- 
sion was  publicly  authorized  by  the  Council  of  Trent  and 
was  soon  afterwards  introduced  into  the  Church  at  Rome 
itself.  It  is  this  ancient  Psalter,  corrected  somewhat  by 
Coverdale  and  others,  that  is  still  continued  in  the  English 
Liturgy  as  the  reading/  Psalms^  and  in  the  offices  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church. 

Augustine  at  first  violently  opposed  the  use  of  the  Gal- 
ilean Psalms,  but  afterwards  became  so  highl}^  pleased  with 
them  that  he  selected  passages  from  them  and  embodied  them 
in  his  Speculum,  or  Mirror,  a  work  which  contained  choice 
selections  from  the  Scriptures,  and  which  he  designed  for 
those  who  were  too  poor  to  purchase  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
Word,  or  too  busily  employed  to  read  it  all. 

So  highly  pleased  with  this  translation  was  Lucinius 
Boeticus,  a  Spaniard,  and  a  warm  friend  to  the  Scriptures, 
that  in  394  he  sent  six  short-hand  copyists  from  Spain  to 
Palestine,  where  Jerome  was  when  he  prepared  it,  to  take 
copies  of  it  and  of  the  other  works  of  Jerome. 

Jerome  prepared  also  a  Psalter  directl}^  from  the  He- 
brew, which  has  been  called  the  Hebraic-Latin  Psalter.  This 
was  completed  in  391,  but  though  much  admired,  was  never 
introduced  into  the  offices  of  the  Church. 

Daring  the  Middle  Ages  many  translations  of  the 
Psalms  were  made  into  the  dialects  of  those  nations  among 
whom  the  Catholic  Church  sent  her  missionaries.  In  many 
cases  the  Psalms  were  published  in  a  volume  by  themselves, 
owing  to  their  being  essential  to  the  performances  of  the 
Liturgy.  Sometimes  versions  were  translated  by  individuals 
on  their  own  responsibilit}^  This  was  especially  the  case 
toward  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Avhen  the  Papal  Church 


THE  Pt^ALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  85 

prohibited  the  use  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  people  in  their 
own  dialects. 

In  the  Ninth  Century  appeared  a  metrical  version  of 
the  Psalms  in  the  German,  by  Otfrid.  Otfrid  was  a  German 
by  birth,  and  a  monk  of  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict.  He 
was  at  first  a  hearer,  then  a  disciple  of  the  celebrated  Abbot 
of  Fulda,  E-abanus  Maurus.  Trithemus  says  of  Otfrid  : 
"He  was  profoundly  versed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  extensively  acquainted  with  literature  in  general ; 
a  philosopher,  a  rhetorician,  and  a  famous  poet ;  eloquent  in 
speech  and  excellent  in  disposition.  His  prose  and  poetical 
works  were  numerous,  and  have  transmitted  his  name  with 
honor  to  posterity.  After  the  example  of  Charlemagne,  he 
attempted  to  reduce  the  barbarous  language  of  the  ancient 
Germans  to  grammatical  rule,  and  partially  succeeded. ' '  A 
manuscript  copy  of  his  metrical  Psalms  is  preserved  in  the 
Imperial  Library  at  Vienna. 

In  the  same  century  the  Roman  Liturgy  with  the 
Roman  Psalter  was  translated  into  the  Slavonic  by  Cyril 
and  Methodius,  brothers,  and  natives  of  Thessalonica,  and 
both  missionating  monks.  The  letter  of  Pope  John  VIII, 
to  these  monks,  approving  of  their  works,  will  show  that 
the  Catholic  Church  had  not  yet,  880  A.  D.,  shut  out  the 
Scriptures  from  the  native  languages.  He  says :  ' '  We 
approve  of  the  Slavonic  letters  invented  by  the  philosopher 
Constantine  ;  and  we  order  that  the  praises  of  Christ  may 
be  published  in  that  language.  It  is  not  contrary  to  the 
faith  to  employ  it  in  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  and  in 
reading  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  who  made  the  three 
principal  languages,  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew,  made  the 
rest  also  for  his  own  glory.  Nevertheless  to  show  the  more 
respect  to  the  Gospel,  let  it  first  be  read  in  the  Latin,  and 
then  in  the  Slavonican  for  the  sake  of  the  people  who  under- 
stand not  Latin. ' ' 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Tenth  Century,  Notker,  sur- 
named  Labeo,  translated  the  Psalter  into  the  Teutonic  or 
Old  German.  He  undertook  the  translation  of  the  Psalms 
that  the  monks,  under  his  care,  who  could  not  understand 
the  Latin,  might  understand  what  they  sang. 


8b  DAVID'S  HARP  IN  SONG  AND  STORY. 

Schilter,  who  published  a  corrected  edition  of  this 
Psalter,  gives  the  title  of  it  in  Latin, — '''■  Notkeri  Tertii 
Tabeonis  Psalter'ium  :  e  Latins)  in  Theotiscam  Veterem  Lin- 
guam  versum.,  et  Paraphran  iUustratu7n.  E  Manuscripto 
codice pe7'vetusto  Du  de  la  Lanhere,  Primus  eruit^  et  descrihi^ 
dum  vi-veret,  curavit.  Titm  inter j> ret atione  et  notis  orncmit 
lo.  Schilterm.       Ulmae,  1726. 

A  cop3^  of  this  Psalter  was  written  for  the  use  of  the 
Empress  Cuneofundis,  wife  of  Heniy  II,  A.  D.  1004,  by  the 
younger  Ekkerard,  a  monk  of  Mentz. 

The  following  will  give  an  idea  of  this  translation  : 

Psalm   I. 

1.  Der  man  ist  salig,  der  in  dero  argon  rat  ne  gegieng, 
Noh  an  dero  sundigon  unege  ne  stuont; 

Noh  an  demo  suhstnole  ne  saz. 

2.  Nube  ner  ist  salig,  tes  unillo  an  gotes  eo  ist,  unc  der 

dara  ana  denchet  tag  unde  naht. 

In  the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  are  two 
translations  of  the  Psalms,  one  into  the  Norman-French,  and 
the  other  a  Polyglot,  belonging  to  the  Eleventh  Century, 
The  Polyglot  contains  the  three  most  celebrated  versions  of 
the  Latin  Psalms,  the  Galilean,  Roman  and  Hebraic,  with  a 
preface,  prayer  and  commentary  subjoined  to  each  Psalm. 
With  the  Galilean  version  is  a  gloss  or  brief  commentary; 
with  the  Roman  is  an  inter] ineary  Normano-Saxon  version  ; 
and  with  the  Hebraic,  the  Norman-French  version.  The 
whole  is  written  on  vellum,  and  is  a  beautiful  specimen  of  an 
illuminated  manuscript. 

In  the  year  1229,  met  the  Council  of  Toulouse,  made 
infamous  in  history  by  its  prohibiting  the  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  languages  of  the  people.  The  celebrated 
Canon  is  in  the  following  terms  :  "We  also  forbid  the  laity 
to  possess  any  of  the  Old  or  New  Testaments,  except 
perhaps,  some  one  out  of  devotion  wishes  to  have  the  Psalter 
or  Breviary  for  the  divine  offices,  or  the  Hours  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin.  But  we  strictly  forbid  them  having  an}'  of 
these  ])ooks  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue." 

But    this    Canon    had    little    influence,    for    from    the 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  87 

Thirteenth  to  the  Sixteenth  Centiiiy,  individual  enterprise 
supplied  the  Psalms  and  all  the  other  sacred  books  in  many 
of  the  vulgar  tongues  of  the  times. 

In  the  Fifteenth  Century  printing  was  invented,  and  so 
the  world  was  destined  no  longer  to  look  for  its  copies  of  the 
Word  of  God  to  the  pens  and  parchments  of  the  lazy  monks. 

The  first  book  issued  from  type  and  the  first  printed 
book  that  bears  the  names  of  the  printers,  and  the  place  and 
date  of  its  publication,  was  a  Latin  Psalter,  commonly 
known  as  the  Mentz  Psalter.  The  most  perfect  copy  of  it 
has  been  preserved  in  the  library  at  Vienna.  It  was  dis- 
covered near  Inspruck,  in  the  Castle  of  Ambras,  in  1665, 
among  a  mass  of  MSS.  and  printed  books  collected  by 
Francis  Sigismund.  ' '  The  book  is  printed  in  folio,  on 
vellum,  and  of  such  extreme  rarity,  that  not  more  than  six 
or  seven  copies  are  known  to  be  in  existence,  all  of  which, 
however,  differ  from  each  other  in  some  respect  or  other. 
The  Psalter  occupies  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  leaves,  and 
the  recto  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-sixth  ;  the  remaining 
forty-one  leaves  are  appropriated  to  the  litany,  prayers, 
responses,  vigils,  &c.  The  Psalms  are  executed  in  larger 
characters  than  the  hymns  ;  the  capital  letters  are  cut  on 
wood,  with  a  degree  of  delicacy  and  boldness  which  is  truly 
surprising  ;  the  largest  of  them,  the  initial  letters  of  the 
Psalms,  which  are  black,  red  and  blue,  must  have  passed 
three  times  through  the  press. ' ' 

This  Psalter  bears  date  of  August  14,  1457.  A  second 
edition  of  it  was  executed  in  1459,  and  contains,  with  it,  the 
first  printed  text  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  It  is  supposed 
that  the  St.  Alban  and  Benedictine  monks  were  at  the 
expense  of  issuing  both  of  these  editions.  Before  the  close 
of  the  century  more  than  thirty  editions  of  the  Latin  Psalter 
were  issued  from  the  press  of  Faust  and  Schoeffer. 

Since  the  Fifteenth  Century,  and  especially  since  the 
Reformation,  Psalters,  either  by  themselves  or  bound  up 
with  the  New  Testament,  have  passed  into  almost  every 
language  upon  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  are  now  read  or 
sung  by  earth's  millions. 

But  one  more  edition  of  the  Psalter  will  be  noticed  in 


88  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

this  connection  :  it  is  the  celebrated  Polyglots  of  Justinian, 
or  Giustiniani.  Concerning  the  rise  of  Polyglots,  a  learned 
writer  in  his  ' '  Succinct  Account  of  Polyglot  Bibles, ' ' 
remarks  :  ' '  The  taste  that  prevailed  early  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century  for  the  cultivation  of  literature  was  partly  the 
cause  of,  and  partly  owing  to  the  publication  of  the  sacred 
writings  in  different  languages.  Certain  men,  in  whom  were 
providentially  meeted  a  taste  for  sound  learning,  together 
with  ecclesiastical  influence,  and  secular  opulence,  determined 
to  publish,  first,  ^j>«rfe,  and  then  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
writings,  in  such  languages  as  were  esteemed  the  learned 
languages  of  the  universe.  These  were  principally  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Chaldee  and  Syriac  ;  others  of  less 
importance  were  added  to  them.  Such  publications  attract- 
ed general  attention,  and  became  greatly  studied.  Hence 
the  taste,  not  only  for  sacred  literature,  but  universal 
science,  became  widely  dift'used  ;  and  the  different  nations 
of  Europe  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  publication 
of  those  works  which  have  since  obtained  the  denomination 
of  Polyglotts,  that  is,  '  Books  in  many  languages.'  " 

The  Polyglott  Psalter  of  Justinian,  Bishop  of  Nebio,  in 
the  Island  of  Corsica,  was  the  first  of  these  great  publica- 
tions. Its  title  is,  "Psalterium,  Hebraicum,  Graecum,  Ara- 
bicum,  et  Chaldeum,  cum  tribus  Latinis  Interpretationibus 
at  Glossis. "  It  was  printed  at  Geneva,  1516,  by  Peter  Paul 
Porrus,  and  is  in  folio.  The  preface  to  the  Psalter  is  ad- 
dressed by  the  author  to  Pope  Leo  X.  The  work  is  divided 
into  eight  columns,  the  first  containing  the  Hebrew,  the 
second,  Justinian's  Latin  translation,  rendered  word  for 
word  from  the  Hebrew  ;  the  third,  the  Latin  Vulgate ;  the 
fourth,  the  Greek;  the  fifth,  the  Arabic;  the  sixth,  the  Chal- 
dee paraphrase  in  Hebrew  characters  ;  the  seventh,  Justin- 
ian's Latin  translation  of  the  Chaldee  paraphrase;  the  eighth. 
Latin  Scholia,  or  notes. 

The  Arabic  in  this  Psalter  was  the  first  ever  printed, 
and  the  Psalter  itself  the  first  part  of  the  Bible  that  ever  ap- 
peared in  so  many  languages. 

Justinian's  motive  in  preparing  this  work  was  to  secure 
some  means  wherebv  he  might  assist  his  indiorent  relatives. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  DARK  AGES.  89 

But  in  this  he  was  grievously  disappointed,  as  we  learn  from 
his  own  statement:  "  I  had  always  imagined  that  my  work 
would  be  largely  sought  after,  and  that  the  wealthy  prelates 
and  princes  would  have  afforded  me  every  assistance  neces- 
sary for  printing  the  rest  of  the  Bible  in  such  a  diversity 
of  languages.  But  I  was  mistaken;  every  one  applauded 
the  work,  but  suffered  it  to  rest  and  sleep;  for  scarcely  was 
a  fourth  part  sold  of  the  two  thousand  copies  which  I  had 
printed,  exclusive  of  fifty  more  copies  printed  upon  vellum, 
which  I  had  presented  to  all  the  kings  of  the  world,  whether 
Christian  or  pagan. ' ' 

In  the  Scholia  or  comments  on  Psalm  19:4:  "Their 
words  are  gone  to  the  end  of  the  world, ' '  Justinian  has 
given,  "by  way  of  commentary,  a  curious  sketch  of  the  life 
of  Columbus,  and  an  account  of  his  discovery  of  America, 
with  a  very  singular  description  of  the  inhabitants,  partic- 
ularly of  the  female  native  Americans;  and  in  which  he  af- 
firms that  Columbus  often  boasted  himself  to  be  the  person 
appointed  by  God  to  fulfill  this  prophetic  exclamation  of 
David."  But  the  account  of  Columbus,  by  Justinian,  seems 
to  have  displeased  the  family  of  that  great  navigator,  for  in 
the  life  of  Columbus,  written  by  his  son  (See  ChurchilFs  Coll. 
of  Voyages,  &c..  Vol.  II,  Page  560),  he  is  accused  of  false- 
hood and  contradiction;  and  it  is  even  added,  "that  consid- 
ering the  many  mistakes  and  falsehoods  found  in  his  Psalter 
and  History,  the  Senate  of  Genoa  has  laid  a  penalty  upon 
any  person  who  shall  read  or  keep  it,  and  has  caused  it  to 
lie  carefully  sought  out  in  all  places  it  has  been  sent  to,  that 
it  may  by  public  decree  be  destroyed,  and  utterly  extin- 
Sfuished. " 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Psalms  ii^  the  Reformation. 

The  Reformation  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
partook  of  the  nature  both  of  a  reaction  and  a  revival.  For 
centuries  the  intelligence  and  piety  of  the  Church  had  been 
lying  in  a  relapse;  ignorance,  formality  and  idolatry  had 
succeeded  to  primitive  light  and  zeal,  saints  and  relics  had 
usurped  the  honors  of  the  Messiah;  traditions  and  visions 
had  been  valued  above  Revelation,  and  society  was  again 
growing  grey  in  its  sins.  But,  as  has  been  often  remarked, 
there  is  a  point  in  the  retrogression  of  human  affairs  beyond 
which  the  race  does  not  seem  to  pass.  Before  ignorance  en- 
tirely reaches  the  brutal,  and  the  heart's  passions  grow  thor- 
oughly fiendish,  the  divine  within  us,  as  if  impelled  by  the 
sudden  consciousness  of  its  terrible  decline,  wheels  upon  its 
course,  and  mounts  rapidly  in  a  reform.  The  historian  need 
not  pause  to  determine  the  philosophy  of  such  a  phenome- 
non. Whether  attributable  to  a  certain  elasticity  of  the 
native  intellect,  to  the  immediate  interposition  of  a  higher 
Power,  or  to  both,  the  fact  remains,  and  history  apj^ears  to 
us  little  else  than  a  record  of  the  successive  ebbings  and 
Sowings  of  faith  and  intelligence.  By  the  twelfth  century 
Western  Europe  had  touched  the  lowest  mark  of  immorality 
and  wretchedness,  when  began  another  of  the  seeming  peri- 
odic returns.  This  reaction  against  superstition,  priestcraft, 
idolatry,  ignorance  and  corruption  in  a  thousand  forms,  cul- 
minated in  what  is  commonly  termed  the  Reformation  ;  and 
introduced  an  era  surpassed  in  importance  only  by  the  com- 
ing of  Christ  himself.  With  the  reactions  began  a  revival 
of  primitive  piety;  the  Bible  issued  from  the  cloister,  and  the 
shackles  of  an  unknown  tongue  to  exert  a  new  power  in  the 
dialects  of  the  people  ;  faith  gained  upon  supeistition  ;  and 
the  doctrines  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion  upon  the  legends 
of  a  barbarous  age;  Christ  rose  to  the  zenith  of  esteem;  men 
sought  again  the  truth  from  the  lips  of  his  faithful  servants, 
90 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  91 

and  the  world  once  more  beheld  the  fervor  and  heard  the 
devotions  of  a  ffreat  regeneration. 

Few  events  have  ever  given  to  the  world  such  a  variety 
of  blessings  as  the  Reformation.  So  universal  was  the  change 
it  produced,  that  Ave  seem  to  be  ushered  into  the  presence  of 
a  newer  and  higher  economy.  The  human  mind  regained 
its  independence,  and  with  it  followed  naturally  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press. 

Conscience  regained  its  lost  rights,  and  men  learned  that 
the}'  could  worship  God  as  their  own  convictions  impelled 
them. 

Education  resumed  her  influence  among  the  masses, 
bearing  to  the  humblest  the  ability  to  read  and  study  the 
divine  records. 

Civil  liberty  began  to  dawn,  and  at  this  remote  day  we 
have  republican  institutions,  the  fruits  of  the  great  reform. 

Among  all  the  secondary  features  of  the  Reformation 
none  appear  with  greater  interest  than  the  revival  of  sacred 
Psalmody.  Daring  the  Dark  Ages,  the  human  voice  was 
not  silent  in  the  matter  of  song,  but  its  tones  were  bent  from 
the  high  and  ennobling  exercise  of  singing  the  Redeemer's 
praise,  and  of  giving  utterance  to  the  workings  of  pious 
hearts,  and  became  merely  a  medium  for  exhibiting  the  cor- 
ruptions of  depraved  inner  life,  or  for  magnifying  the  names 
and  attributes  of  Antichrist.  The  Reformation  purified  the 
Psalmody  of  Zion;  the  book  of  Sacred  Songs  was  expurgated, 
those  in  the  praise  of  the  Virgin  and  the  saints  being  cast  out. 

The  Sacred  Songs  of  the  Reformation  appeared  in  the 
native  tongues  of  the  people,  instead  of  a  language  dead,  and 
so  its  sentiments  unknown.  Psalms  and  Hymns  rolled  over 
Germany,  rising  from  the  lips  of  her  thousands,  in  words 
and  in  a  rythm  with  which  all  were  familiar.  Passing  from 
the  native  land  of  Luther,  these  sacred  songs  retained  their 
inspiration  and  truth,  but  dropped  their  dress  and  reappearcl 
in  the  dialects  of  the  Russian,  the  Pole,  the  Swiss,  the  Ital- 
ian, the  Spaniard,  the  Portuguese,  the  French,  the  Nether- 
lander, the  Norwegian,  the  English,  the  Scotch,  the  Irish, 
thus  presenting  to  the  world  a  Babel  of  tongues,  but  to  God 
a  unity  of  sentiment  and  praise. 


92  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

In  the  reaction  the  masses  regained  their  rio^hts  to  sins: 
praise  to  their  God.  The  Psalmody  of  the  Dark  Ages  was 
representative,  a  select  and  trained  choir  appearing  for  the 
people.  By  an  enactment  the  congregation  sat  silent.  In 
the  revival  the  Church  heard  the  voices  of  all  her  sons  and 
daughters  praising  her  Lord  as  in  primitive  days. 

Many  of  those  agencies  that  prepared  the  way  for  a  re- 
turn to  pure  and  evangelical  faith  and  worship  contributed 
also  to  the  influence  and  universality  of  sacred  Psalmody. 

The  invention  of  printing  secured  the  extensive  distri- 
bution of  sacred  songs  in  the  form  of  tracts  and  books,  so 
that  the  people  could  be  fully  supplied  with  material  for  their 
praise.  Previous  to  the  fifteenth  century  the  world  depended 
for  its  supply  of  reading  matter  upon  the  pens  of  the  monks; 
hence  books  were  exceedingly  scarce  and  commanded  exorbi- 
tant prices.  Private  libraries  were  almost  unknown,  and  the 
few  books  possessed  by  the  colleges  and  cathedrals  scarcely 
merited  the  name  of  library.  The  length  of  time  required 
for  the  transcription  of  manuscripts,  and  the  cost  of  securing 
and  preparing  the  materials  for  the  work,  rendered  the  pur- 
chase of  books  almost  impossible  to  all  save  the  wealthy. 
The  invention  of  printing  changed  this  condition  of  affairs. 
Books  were  multiplied  and  sold  at  a  reasonable  price;  the 
people  everywhere,  by  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, were  possessing  Bibles  and  Psalm-books  for  themselves, 
and  soon  learned  to  read  and  sing  from  them  with  facility. 
The  writings  of  Luther,  the  sacred  poetry  of  Hans  Sachs, 
the  Psalms  of  Marot,  Beza  and  others  were  struck  off  and 
sold  by  the  thousands.  Printing  presses  could  not  supply 
the  demands  that  came  in  from  all  parts  of  France  and  the 
Netherlands  for  the  new  French  songs.  Ten  thousand  copies 
were  issued  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Genevan  Psalm-book, 
and  yet  edition  followed  edition  with  wonderful  rapidity. 
Through  Germany,  Holland,  Prussia  and  other  of  the  Ger- 
man States,  the  little  primer  of  Luther  containing  his  Psalms 
and  Hymns  entered  nearly  every  family  and  carried  their 
sentiments  into  the  hearts  of  multitudes.  This  difl'usion  of 
the  Psalms  of  the  Bible  was  one  of  the  chief  elements  in  the 
success  of  the  Reformation. 


THE    rSALMS    IN    THE    KEFORMATION.  93 

It  was  the  distribution  of  the  Psalms  among  the  masses 
that  hiid  the  foundation  for  a  full  restoration  of  congrega- 
tional singing.  In  the  homes  of  the  Reformed  were  heard 
the  sweet  melody  of  sacred  music  set  to  evangelical  senti- 
ments of  Reformation  songs;  in  the  congregation  the  voices 
of  men,  women  and  children  mingled  in  the  praise;  and  in 
the  vast  conventicles  that  mst  in  the  open  air  and  numbered 
thousands  of  worshipers,  the  music  that  bore  up  in  the  clear 
heavens  the  joy  of  redeemed  souls,  resembled  the  noise  of  the 
sea  when  agitated  in  a  mighty  tempest.  The  world  in  the 
Reformation  witnessed  to  an  extent  never  known  before,  and 
never,  probabl}',  to  be  known  again  till  the  millennium  dawn, 
an  enthusiasm  of  praise.  The  early  ages  were  to  be  more 
than  renewed,  when  from  the  field,  the  workshop,  the  vine- 
yards, from  off  the  bosoms  of  generous  streams,  from  the 
crowded  ranks  of  war,  from,  the  persecuted  in  deserts  and 
dens,  as  well  as  from  the  family  fireside  and  the  great  con- 
gregation, the  strains  of  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Judah  were 
to  pour  forth,  in  a  music  rude,  perhaps,  to  a  skillful  ear,  but 
loud,  sincere  and  powerful  with  an  impartial  God.  Even  the 
enemies  of  the  cross,  the  voluptuous,  the  profane,  caught 
the  inspiration  of  God's  freed  people,  and  purchased  and 
sang  their  Psalms  and  Hymns;  kings  and  queens,  the  counts 
and  nobles  in  the  courts  of  ro3'alty  were  affected  amid  the 
musical  contagion,  and  unintentionally  sanctioned  and  pro- 
moted a  purified  and  holy  Psalmody.  Thus  did  God  liter- 
ally cause  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him. 

In  accounting  for  the  character  and  success  of  the  Refor- 
mation Psalmodj',  much  credit  must  be  given  to  the  celebrated 
Troubadours  and  their  kindred  bands.  Those  bards  of  the 
Middle  Ages  that  are  commonly  known  as  the  Troubadours, 
took  their  rise  in  the  twelfth  century;  though  they  were  pre- 
ceded by  poets  and  minstrels  for  perhaps  many  centuries  be- 
fore. We  read  of  the  Celtic  bards  at  a  very  early  date;  there 
were  Troubadours  in  Normandy  one  hundred  years  before 
those  of  the  South  of  France,  who  composed  romances  in 
rhyme  and  sang  them  to  the  music  of  their  harps  at  festival 
solemnities.  Previous  to  the  twelfth  century  and  during  the 
reign  of  the  provincial  bards,  the  western   part  of  Europe 


94  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

was  both  amused  and  entertained  by  bands  of  jongleurs,  a 
class  of  men  who  invented  different  kinds  of  poetry,  and 
sang  their  poems  to  the  accompaniment  of  various  instru- 
ments. These  jongleurs  were  attached  to  the  courts  of  kings 
and  princes  and  noblemen,  whose  glorious  exploits  they 
turned  into  verse  and  sang  to  their  harps  or  violins.  When 
these  minstrels  began  a  roving  life,  they  traveled  mostly  on 
foot,  with  their  instruments  suspended  round  their  necks, 
while  troops  of  women,  dancers  and  mountebanks  followed 
in  their  train. 

The  Troubadours  proper  claim  an  important  place  in 
history  by  virtue  of  the  influence  they  exerted  in  the  devel- 
opment of  refinement  in  social  manners,  civilization  and  re- 
ligion. They  arose  in  France,  the  birthplace  of  chivalry, 
and  are  sometimes  called  the  Provencal  poets,  because  of 
their  inhabiting  Provence  in  the  southern  part  of  France. 
These  Troubadovirs  were  to  a  very  great  extent  the  poets  of 
love.  Love  was  their  inspiration,  their  theme,  the  business 
of  their  lives.  Though  the  sentiments  of  their  poems  seem 
idle  and  foolish  in  a  more  learned  and  dignified  age  than  that 
in  which  they  lived,  yet  the  language  and  style  of  their 
compositions  were  the  finest  of  their  day;  and  poetry  for 
many  a  century  since  has  resorted  for  some  of  its  most  fin- 
ished expressions  to  the  vapid  songs  of  Provence.  The  poems 
of  the  Troubadours  were  composed  in  the  form  of  rhyme, 
and  were  cast  in  almost  every  variety  of  metre,  from  two  to 
twelve  syllables.  These  minstrels  like  the  jongleurs  were 
the  guests  of  royalty.  The  honorable  and  the  wealthy  com- 
peted in  doing  them  honor.  They  received  a  welcome  in  the 
most  refined  courts  and  circles  of  Europe,  and  sometimes 
even  aspired  to  link  their  life-fortune  to  ladies  of  a  nobler 
birth  than  their  own. 

The  Troubadours  were  undoubtedly  "the  first  product 
of  Christian  civilization;"  the  earliest  faint  glimmerings  of 
a  coming  Reformation.  Among  them  were  men  of  noble 
characters,  who  mourned  over  the  corruption  of  society  and 
the  Church.  Poems  were  composed  and  sung  in  which  vice 
in  all  its  forms  was  attacked;  princes  were  not  spared  in  their 
fearless  criticisms,  and  Kome  herself  received  from  them 
some  of  her  earliest  wounds. 


THE    rSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  95 

Sometimes  the  themes  of  the  Troubadours  were  drawn 
from  the  Scriptures;  more  frequently  they  were  afforded 
from  the  lives  and  adventures  of  distinguished  patrons,  and 
from  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  crustides. 

Although  the  Troubadours  had  ceased  as  a  distinct  band 
many  years  before  the  Reformation,  yet  they  were  succeeded 
by  the  Mmne- singers,  Flagellants  and  others,  who  roved  in 
bands  of  thousands  often  exciting  the  minds  of  men,  and 
continuing  till  the  outbreak  of  the  reform  itself. 

These  minstrel  bands  were  educating  society  for  the  suc- 
cess of  a  nobler  and  more  soul-inspiring  Psalmody.  Wher- 
ever they  went  the  spirit  of  song  was  awakened,  the  masses 
of  society  honored  those  who  were  the  guests  of  their  rulers, 
and  were  ambitious  to  imitate  and  join  them.  Western 
Europe  became  a  country  of  musicians;  and  to  this  day  those 
parts  of  Italy,  Sj)ain,  France  and  Germany,  which  were  the 
homes  of  the  Troubadours  and  their  successors,  are  renowned 
in  the  records  of  music  and  song. 

Carlyle  thus  speaks  of  the  age  immediately  preceding 
the  Reformation:  ' '  Then  truly  was  the  time  of  singing  come, 
for  princes  and  prelates,  emperors  and  squires,  the  wise  and 
the  simple,  men,  women  and  children  all  sang  and  rhymed, 
or  delighted  in  hearing  it  done.  It  was  a  universal  noise  of 
song,  as  if  the  Spring  of  mankind  had  arrived,  and  w^arblings 
from  every  sprig — not,  indeed,  without  infinite  twitterings 
also,  which,  except  their  gladness,  had  no  music — were  bid- 
ding it  welcome.  This  was  the  Swabian  era,  justly  reck- 
oned, not  only  superior  to  all  preceding  eras,  but  properly 
the  first  era  of  German  literature.  Poetry  at  length  found 
a  home  in  the  life  of  men;  and  every  pure  soul  was  inspired 
by  it  and  in  words,  or,  still  better,  in  actions  strove  to  give 
it  utterance.  'Believers,'  says  Tieck,  'sang  of  faith;  lovers 
of  love;  knights  described  knightly  actions  and  battle,  and 
living,  believing  knights  were  their  chief  audience.'  " 

When  the  Bohemian  Reformers  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  those  of  Germany  and  Geneva,  in  the  sixteenth,  looked 
abroad  for  the  agencies  of  their  success  in  sacred  Psalmody, 
they  found  that  the  mediaeval  bards  had  prepared  the  way 
for  them. 


96  David's  haei'  in  song  and  story. 

TJie  songs  of  the  Troubadours  provided  the  rhyme  and 
the  metres  for  the  moulding  of  their  translations  from  the 
Bil)lo,  or  for  the  composition  of  their  own  inspiration;  the 
metres  and  rhyme  appropriated,  the  tunes  and  melodies  of 
those  traveling  poets  were  found  convenient;  and  when, 
through  the  help  of  the  press,  these  divine  songs  were  cast 
upon  the  world,  they  found  communities  already  skilled  in 
music  and  famdiar  with  the  very  tunes  to  which  they  were 
to  be  sung.  Thus  was  God  for  centuries  preparing  for  a 
great  renovation  in  his  Church. 

The  history  of  the  Psalms  and  Psalm-singing  among 
the  Reformers  Ijegins  properly  as  early  as  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Along  the  northern  portions  of  Spain  and  Italy; 
throughout  Southern  France;  among  the  Alps;  in  the  coun- 
try on  both  sides  of  the  Rhine,  and,  at  a  later  period,  in  Ger- 
many, Flanders,  Switzerland  and  Austria,  lived  the  Wai- 
denses,  a  class  who  have  gained  an  envial)le  notoriety  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  for  the  purity  of  their  doctrines  and 
for  their  opposition  to  the  crimes  and  follies  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  Christians  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  Cathari,  or  Puritans,  who  flourished  some  cen- 
turies before.  The  chief  apostle  of  the  Waldenses  was  Peter 
Waldo,  who  has  also  the  reputation  of  founding  and  afford- 
ing the  name  for  this  sect.  Waldo  was  born  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth  century,  and  is  known  tirst  as  a  rich 
merchant  of  Lyons;  but,  becoming  a  convert  to  the  true 
faith,  he  distinguished  himself  as  an  opponent  of  the  dogmas 
and  vices  of  the  Roman  clergy.  According  to  Milner,  the 
Christian  world  in  the  West  is  indebted  to  this  bard,  or  pas- 
tor of  the  Wakienses  for  the  first  translation  of  the  Bible 
into  a  modern  tongue  after  the  time  that  Latin  had  ceased  to 
be  a  living  language.  An  account  of  the  doctrines,  discip- 
line and  persecutions  of  this  remarkable  people  may  be  found 
in  the  records  of  all  of  the  church  historians.  After  the  rise 
of  the  Hussites,  the  Waldensian  Christians  retired  from  Ger- 
many, France,  Italy  and  settled  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont 
and  Savoy,  where  their  descendants,  with  many  of  their  an- 
cient forms,  and  much  of  their  primitive  piety,  may  still  be 
found.     The    historians    who    have  written  concernino;  ther 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  97 

Waldenses  give  us  little  more  than  the  fact  that  they  were 
Psalm-singers.  When  Waldo  translated  the  Psalms  with  the 
rest  of  the  Bible  into  the  French  tongue,  it  is  probable  that 
his  followers  at  once  adopted  them  in  their  Psalmody  and 
chanted  them  after  the  manner  of  the  Komish  Church.  It  is 
certain  that  in  the  year  1179  there  was  among  this  people  a 
French  version  of  the  Psalms,  with  a  gloss  accompanying 
it;  for  Walter  Mapos,  a  chaplain  to  Henry  II.,  informs  us 
that  during  the  Council  of  Lateran,  held  in  1179,  the  Wal- 
denses presented  to  Pope  Alexander  III.,  "a  book  contain- 
ing the  text  of  the  Psalms,  with  a  gloss;  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  books  of  both  Laws" — the  Mosaic  Law  and  the  Gos- 
pel. Owing  to  the  poverty  of  the  Waldenses,  and  the  high 
prices  of  manuscripts  of  the  Scriptures,  but  few  Psalm-books 
could  be  possessed  by  the  people,  but  this  difficulty  was  to  a 
remarkable  degree  balanced  by  their  efforts  to  commit  and 
retain  in  their  memories  what  they  might  hear  read  by  their 
pastors.  Reinerius,  a  Roman  Catholic  writer,  states  that 
he  heard  a  peasant  recite  the  whole  book  of  Job  by  heart, 
and  that  he  had  heard  of  many  others  who  could  so  repeat 
the  New  Testament.  It  was  required,  as  a  part  of  the  requi- 
site attainment  of  young  men  to  the  place  of  pastors,  that 
they  should  memorize  portions  of  the  Scriptures,  among 
which  were  the  Psalms.  "They  are  to  learn  by  heart  all 
the  chapters  of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  John,  all  the  canonical 
Epistles,  and  a  good  part  of  the  writings  of  Solomon,  David 
and  the  Prophets. ' ' 

An  intimation  that  the  singing  of  the  Psalms  was  a  part 
of  the  public  and  private  worship  of  the  Waldenses  is  given 
by  De  Thou,  one  of  their  enemies.  In  a  description  he  gives 
of  the  stony  valley  of  Dauphiny,  where  many  of  these  Pro- 
testants resided,  he  says  of  the  people:  "Their  clothing  is 
of  the  skins  of  sheep;  they  have  no  linen.  They  inhabit 
seven  villages  ;  their  houses  are  constructed  of  flint  stone, 
with  a  flat  roof  covered  with  mud,  which  being  spoiled  or 
loosened  by  the  rain,  they  smooth  again  with  a  roller.  In 
these  they  live  with  their  cattle,  separated  from  them,  how- 
ever, by  a  fence;  they  have  besides,  two  caves  set  apart  for 
particular  purposes,  in  one  of  which  they  conceal  their  cattle, 


S8  damd's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

in  the  other  themselves  when  hunted  by  their  enemies.  They 
live  on  milk  and  venison,  being  by  constant  practice  excel- 
lent marksmen.  Poor,  as  they  are,  they  are  content,  and 
live  separate  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  One  thing  is  aston- 
ishing, that  persons  externally  so  savage  and  rude  should 
have  so  much  moral  cultivation.  They  can  all  read  and 
write.  They  understand  French,  so  far  as  is  needful  for  un- 
derstanding the  Bible,  and  the  sinking  of  Psalms.  You  can 
scarce  find  a  boy  among  them  who  cannot  give  you  an  intel- 
ligible account  of  the  faith  which  they  profess;  in  this,  in- 
deed, they  resemble  their  brethren  of  the  other  villages;  they 
pay  tribute  with  a  good  conscience,  and  the  obligation  of 
this  duty  is  peculiarly  noted  in  the  confession  of  the  faith. 
If  by  reason  of  the  civil  wars  they  are  prevented  from  doing 
this,  they  carefully  set  apart  the  sum,  and  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity pay  it  to  the  king's  tax-gatherers," 

A  late  writer  says  of  the  Waldensian  Psalm-singing: 
"This  was  not  only  a  part  of  their  worship,  but  also  a  part 
of  their  recreation  fi'om  labor,  and  their  solace  at  work.  The 
women  carrying  their  milk  from  the  pasturage,  and  the  la- 
borer in  the  field,  the  shepherd  on  the  mountain  side  and  the 
mechanic  in  his  workshop  cheered  themselves  by  singing  the 
Psalms  of  David.  They  committed  them  to  memorj'^  in 
French  and  sang  them  without  a  book,  and  were  so  noted 
for  Psalm-singing  that  for  any  one  to  be  found  singing 
Psalms,  was  taken  for  good  proof  that  he  was  a  Vaudois. 
Upon  their  return  under  Henry  Arnaud,  after  the  battle  of 
Salabertraud,  '  they  had  the  infinite  satisfaction  of  finding 
their  church  at  Prali  standing. '  They  removed  everything 
that  savored  of  Romish  idolatry,  and  sang  the  Seventy-fourth 
Psalm : 

'  Oh  !  God,  why  art  thou  absent  from  us  so  long.' 
Monsieur  Arnaud  then  mounted  a  bench  in  the  doorway, 
that  he  might  be  audible  to  those  within  and  without  the 
church,  and  after  the  One  hundred  and  twenty-ninth  Psalm 
had  been  sung,  preached  in  exposition  of  some  of  the  verses 
of  that  Psalm.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  church  in 
which  God  granted  to  the  Vaudois  to  perform  service  on 
their  return,  was  formerly  served  by  Monsieur  Liedet,  who 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  99 

being  detected  in  singing  Psalms  under  a  rock,  was,  there- 
fore, hunor  on  a  gribbet  at  St.  Michael,  near  Lucerne.  To 
this  day,  the  valleys  of  the  Vaudois  echo  these  songs  of 
Zion  in  the  ear  of  the  traveler. ' ' 

Dr.  Henderson,  in  an  account  of  a  tour  that  he  made, 
in  1844,  through  the  valleys  of  the  Piedmont,  bears  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  the  Waldenses  still  sing  the  inspired 
Psalms.  He  describes  the  first  religious  service  he  attended 
at  Angrognd  thus:  "  It  was  conducted  as  follows:  The 
school  regent,  at  the  desk  below  the  pulpit,  read  three  chap- 
ters of  the  New  Testament  with  the  practical  remarks  of 
Ostervald's  French  Bible  on  the  passage,  all  the  services 
beino^  conducted  in  that  language.  He  next  read  the  deca- 
logue,  and  our  Saviour's  summary  of  the  Law.  The  min- 
ister then  offered  from  the  pulpit  a  short  confession  of  sins, 
and  gave  out  some  verses  of  a  Psalm,  toMch  were  sung  hy  all 
the  people  from,  musical  note-hooks^  and  while  sitting.'''' 

The  same  traveler  quotes  a  passage  from  Jerome  as 
applicable,  with  scarcely  any  abatement,  to  the  Waldenses  or 
Vaudois  of  the  present  century  :  '  'In  every  direction  where 
there  is  a  sound  of  human  voices,  it  is  the  voice  of  psalmody. 
If  the  ploughman  is  guiding  his  plough,  his  song  is  Hal- 
lelujah !  If  it  be  the  shepherd  tending  his  flock,  the  reaper 
gathering  his  corn,  or  the  vine-dresser  pruning  the  tendrils, 
his  chant  is  the  same  ;  it  is  some  song  of  David  that  he 
sings.  Hence  all  poetry  is  sacred  poetry,  and  every  feeling 
of  the  heart  finds  utterance  in  the  language  of  the  Psalmist. ' ' 

Passing  from  the  valleys  of  Southern  France,  into 
Bohemia,  we  meet  with  the  successors  of  the  early  Vaudois, 
under  the  denomination  of  Hussites.  These  Christians 
began  to  flourish  fully  two  hundred  and  forty  years  after 
the  days  of  Waldo.  Though  their  doctrines  varied  in  some 
particulars  from  the  Waldenses,  yet  they  owed  their  rise  to 
the  teachings  of  the  Swiss  and  Piedmontes  emigrants,  who 
settled  in  Bohemia,  and  peddled  among  the  inhabitants  their 
principles  as  well  as  their  wares.  The  Hussites  were  not 
pre-eminent  for  their  Psalm-singing.  With  them  began 
that  general  use  of  hymns,  which  from  that  day  to  this,  has 
chiefly  characterized  the  German  churches.     The  author  of 


100  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  "  Encyclopedia  of  Music  "  observes  of  the  disciples  of 
Huss,  Wicklitf ,  and  Jerome,  that  they  were  ' '  celebrated 
psalm-singers. ' '  A  similar  statement  is  made  by  the  author 
of  ' '  Primitive  Psalms. ' '  But  the  term  Psalm  has  been  so 
frequently  used  both  to  designate  the  songs  of  the  Psalter 
and  the  hymns  of  uninspired  poets,  that  but  little  can  be 
known  of  the  proportion  the  Psalms  held  in  the  Psalmody 
of  the  Bohemian  worshipers.  That  the  Hussites  had  the 
Psalms  and  sang  them,  at  least  to  a  limited  extent,  is  certain  ; 
but,  aside  from  the  mere  fact,  little  is  known.  Bohemia 
presents  us  with  one  item  of  interest.  It  is  here  we  find  the 
first  Psalmist  of  Reformation  times,  whose  metrical  render- 
ing of  the  Psalter  was  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  church. 
This  Psalmist  was  no  other  than  John  Huss,  the  apostle  of 
Bohemia.  From  Rees'  Encyclopedia  we  learn  that  this 
eminent  Reformer  rendered  the  Psalms  into  German  metre 
and  had  them  published  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  Of  this  vei-sion  no  history  has  been  pre- 
served, but  that  it  formed  a  part  of  the  Psalmody  of  the 
Hussites  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt. 

The  first  Psalmist  of  the  Reformation  of  whose  version 
we  have  any  definite  knowledge  was  Martin  Luther. 
Luther  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a  theologian.  Soon  after  his 
fifteenth  year,  he  composed  Latin  verses,  "which  alike 
surprised  and  gratified  his  insti'uctors. "  These  early  ex- 
ercises under  the  inspiration  of  the  poetic  muse,  instead  of 
being  merely  the  effusions  of  a  susceptible  age,  were  dis- 
ciplining the  youthful  rhymer  for  a  wider  sphere  of  useful- 
ness. Germany  will  ever  remember  her  great  Reformer  as 
the  chief  of  her  sacred  poets.  His  genius  gave  his  country 
songs  that  ever  since  his  day  have  been  administering  comfort 
and  encouragement  in  hours  of  trial.  Many  of  them  are 
yet,  three  centuries  from  the  age  of  his  personal  sojourn  on 
earth,  the  household  words  of  German  Christians. 

From  the  moment  of  his  gaining  access  to  the  old  Latin 
Bible  in  his  Monastery,  Luther  was  a  special  admirer  of  the 
Psalms.  These  formed  the  basis  of  some  of  his  earliest  ex- 
positions of  the  Scripture. 

Luther  had  some  favorite  Psalms  from  which  he  derived 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  101 

especial  benefit.  Of  the  One  hundred  and  tenth  he  said,  it 
"is  very  fine.  It  describes  the  kingdom  and  priesthood  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  declares  him  to  be  King  of  all  things,  and 
the  intercessor  for  all  men,  to  whom  all  things  have  been 
remitted  by  the  Father  and  who  has  compassion  on  all.  'Tis 
a  noble  Psalm  :  if  I  were  well  I  would  endeavor  to  make  a 
<;ommentary  on  it. ' ' 

' '  The  Second  Psalm, ' '  said  he,  ' '  is  one  of  the  best 
Psalms.  I  love  that  Psalm  with  my  heart.  It  strikes  and 
flashes  valiantly  among  kings,  princes,  councellors,  judges, 
etc.  If  what  this  Psalm  says  be  true,  then  are  the  allega- 
tions and  arms  of  the  papists  stark  lies  and  folly.  If  I  were 
as  our  Lord  God,  and  had  committed  the  government  to  my 
son,  as  he  has  to  his  Son,  and  these  vile  people  were  as  dis- 
obedient as  they  now  be,  I  would  knock  the  world  in  pieces. ' ' 

He  thus  compliments  the  ' '  Sweet  Psalmist: "  "  Neither 
Cicero  nor  Virgil,  nor  Demosthenes,  is  to  be  compared 
with  David  in  point  of  eloquence,  as  we  see  in  the  One 
hundred  and  nineteenth  Psalm,  which  he  divides  into  two 
and  twenty  parts,  each  composed  of  eight  verses  and  yet  all 
having  but  one  thought — the  law  of  God.  He  had  great 
gifts  and  was  highly  favored  of  God.  I  hold  that  God 
sufl'ered  him  to  fall  so  horribly  lest  he  should  become  too 
haughty  and  proud. ' '  Of  those  words  in  the  Third  Psalm  : 
' '  I  lay  me  down  and  sleep  ;  I  wake  ;  for  the  Lord  sustaineth 
me, ' '  he  was  so  fond,  that  he  engaged  the  famous  composer, 
Lewis  Leufel,  to  put  music  to  them.  When  he  would  find 
Melancthon  depressed  in  spirit  over  approaching  troubles,  he 
would  say  cheerfully  to  him,  "  Come  let  us  sing  the  Forty- 
sixth  Psalm,  and  let  earth  and  hell  do  their  most." 

In  the  year  1526  Luther  published  an  exposition  of 
certain  Psalms.  This  volume  was  dedicated  to  Mary  of 
Austria,  the  relict  of  Lewis,  King  of  Hungary,  who  was 
drowned  in  his  flight  from  Solyman,  who  had  defeated  him 
on  the  plains  of  Mohacz.  This  princess  was  the  sister  of 
Charles  V.  and  of  Ferdinand  ;  and  the  Reformer  by  his 
dedicating  his  book  to  her,  no  doubt  hoped  to  promote  the 
Reformation  by  gaining  her  to  the  Protestant  religion. 
Whether  or  not  it  was  Luther's  comments  and   dedicatory 


102 


David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 


preface  that  conciliated  Mary's  favor,  certain  it  is  that  she 
acted  with  prudence  and  moderation  when  administering  the 
government  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  sought  to  warn 
Charles  against  the  wiles  of  the  Catholic  clergy. 

In  1624  Luther  announced  his  intention  of  having  the 
Psalms  versitietl  for  the  use  of  the  German  churches.  His 
design  at  the  time  was  carried  out  only  to  a  very  limited  ex- 
tent. A  small  primer  was  issued,  having  but  three  sheets, 
and  containing  only  eight  selections  of  Psalms  and  Hymns, 
and  three  melodies.  The  melody  then  set  to  the  Eleventh 
Psalm  may  still  be  found  in  the  German  choral  books. 

According  to  Milner,  "  Luther,  a  short  time  before  he 
ventured  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  German 
tongue,  had  had  the  precaution  to  compose  and  print  a  very 
useful  little  book,  containing  thirty-eight  German  Hymns, 
with  their  appropriate  tunes,  for  the  express  purpose  of  con- 
veying and  hxing  in  the  memories  of  the  common  people 
a  deal  of  religious  instruction  in  a  very  concise  and  agreeable 
manner.  The  subjects  were  :  parts  of  the  Catechism  ;  lead- 
ing articles  of  belief  ;  prayers  and  thanksgiving  ;  in  fact, 
the  book  was  a  summary  of  Christian  doctrine  expressed 
in  very  neat  and  elegant  German  metre,  and  so  well 
managed,  that  the  harmony  and  modulation  of  the  voice 
agreed  with  the  words  and  sentiments,  and  tended  to  raise 
the  corresponding  affection  in  the  minds  of  the  singers.  On 
this  account  the  author  has  been  called  the  true  Orpheus  of 
Germany  ;  and  to  his  praise  it  is  added,  that  he  applied  his 
knowledge  of  musical  numbers  and  harmonies  to  the  excita- 
tion of  the  most  pious  and  fervid  emotions  in  the  soul." 

Some  of  the  versifications  in  this  sacred  song  book,  we 
are  assured,  were  metrical  Psalms,  and  of  Luther's  own 
composing  ;  but  other  than  this  does  not  appear.  Aside 
from  those  compositions  of  Luther's,  that  are  commonly 
classed  among  his  Psalms,  are  others  that  are  merely  very 
fine  paraphrases  upon  some  parts  of  certain  Psalms.  His 
celebrated  ' '  Eine  f este  Burg  ist  unser  Gott, ' '  which  has 
been  termed  the  Marseilles  Hymn  of  the  Reformation,  is  a 
paraphrase  of  the  Fort3'-sixth  Psalm.  It  is  said  that  he 
composed  it  but  a  short  time  before  going  to  Worms ;  and 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  103 

that  as  he  approached  that  city  on  the  memorable  10th  of 
April,  he  rose  in  his  chariot  and  sang  it  with  a  cheerful 
voice. 

When  he  had  recovered,  on  a  certain  occasion  from  a 
fainting  fit,  induced  by  the  intensity  of  spiritual  conflict,  he 
composed  a  paraphrase  of  the  One  hundred  and  thirtieth 
Psalm.  When  his  dead  body  was  borne  through  Halle  to  its 
last  resting  place  at  Wittenberg,  his  countrymen  followed  it 
in  throngs,  and  when  it  was  placed  in  the  church  at  that 
place  the  people  gathered  about  it  and  amid  tears  and  sobs 
sang:  that  Psalm  beside  it. 

There  were  also  paraphrases  of  the  Twelfth,  Sixty- 
seventh  and  One  hundred  and  twenty-fourth  Psalms. 

As  Luther  designed  the  translation  of  the  whole  book  of 
Psalms,  those  which  he  did  not  himself  versify,  he  com- 
mitted to  Spalatin  and  Doezy.  To  Spalatin  he  wrote  :  "  We 
intend,  after  the  example  of  the  prophets  and  primitive 
fathers  to  turn  the  Psalms  for  spiritual  singing  into  the  vul- 
gar tongue  for  the  common  people,  so  that  the  word  of  God 
may  remain  among  the  people  even  in  singing.  Upon  this 
account  we  seek  some  poets,  and  as  you  possess  the  copious- 
ness and  elegance  of  the  German,  which  you  have  greatly 
cultivated,  I  would  request  your  assistance  in  this  business, 
in  translating  some  of  the  Psalms  into  German  verse  accord- 
ing to  the  enclosed  example.  My  wish  is  to  avoid  all  dif- 
ficult and  courtly  terms,  and  to  use  the  simplest  and  most 
common  phrases,  so  that  they  are  fit  and  proper  for  the  edi- 
fication of  the  lowest  among  the  people.  Let  the  sense  be 
clear  and  as  close  as  possible  to  the  original.  To  preserve 
the  sense  where  you  cannot  render  word  for  word,  it  may  be 
right  to  use  such  a  phrase  as  will  most  perfectly  convey  the 
idea.  I  confess  I  am  not  sufiiciently  qualified  myself,  and 
therefore  would  request  you  to  try  how  near  you  can  ap- 
proach to  Heman,  Asaph  and  Jeduthan. " 

This  version  of  the  Psalms  was  completed,  and  Luther 
lived  to  see  it  exceedingly  popular.  Luther  sang  these 
Psalms  himself  and  commended  them  to  others — "let  them, " 
he  says  to  his  friends,  "avoid  solitariness,  keeping  always 
in  good  company,  sing  the  Psalms  and  converse  upon  the 


lO-i  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Holy  Scriptures. "  "Every  village  school-boy  among  the 
Protestants  was  presently  employed  to  get  them  by  heart, 
and  help  to  sing  them  on  Sunday."  In  the  army,  as  well 
as  in  the  peaceful  walks  of  life,  they  resounded  the  praise 
of  God.  It  was  the  ' '  Eine  f este  Burg  ist  unser  Gott ' '  that 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  pious  king  of  Sweden,  took  for  his 
battle  hymn,  and  which  he  had  his  army  sing  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  Nov.  6,  1632. 

Such  was  the  popularity  of  the  German  Psalms,  that 
they  were  translated  into  the  Heljrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Bohe- 
mian, English  and  other  lanjruaofes. 

Of  the  influence  of  these  Psalms  and  hymns  of  Luther, 
the  Jesuit  Adam  Contzen  bore  testimony  :  ' '  The  hymns  of 
Luther  have  ruined  more  souls  than  all  his  writings  and  ser- 
mons. And  hence  the  rulers  of  the  church  must  also  em- 
ploy that  as  a  medicine  which  the  deceivers  have  invented  as 
a  destroyer. "  In  preparing  a  hymn-book  for  themselves, 
the  papists  appropriated  many  of  Luther's  compositions,  so 
altered  as  to  suit  their  views.  The  Papal  hymn-book  pub- 
lished at  Mentz  in  1679,  contained  many  of  Luther's  songs. 
Luther's  "  Eine  feste  burg  "  is  here  given  : 

EINE  FESTE  BURG  IST  UNSER  GOTT. 
A  Paraphrase  of  Psalm  46  : 1. 

MAKTIN   LUTHER. 

God  is  our  fortress  strong  and  high, 

A  sure  defense  and  Aveapon  ; 
His  powerful  aid  is  ever  nigh 

Whate'er  distress  may  happen. 

The  old  and  evil  foe 

Would  fain  bring  us  low 
With  great  craft  and  might : 

Full  armed  for  the  fight, 
On  earth  none  can  him  liken. 

Our  feeble  might  achieveth  naught, 

Our  i-truggle  soon  but  feigned 
By  him  alone  the  work  is  wrought 

Whom  God  himself  ordained. 

Dost  thou  ask  the  same  ? 

The  Christ  is  the  same, 
The  Lord  of  Sabaoth  ; 

There  is  no  other  (jiod  ; 
'Tis  he  the  field  hath  taken. 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    REFORMATION.  105 

And  were  the  world  of  devils  full 

All  threatening  to  devour  us, 
We  fear  not ;  true  and  dutiful 

They  cannot  overpower  us. 

Prince  of  this  world  in  vain, 

His  darts  round  may  rain, 
He  no  harm  can  us  do  ; 

His  arts  must  perish  too, 
A  little  word  can  slay  them. 

That  word  of  his  shall  sure  remain, 

To  man  no  praise  is  given  ; 
He's  with  us  on  the  battle  plain, 

His  spirit  aids  from  heaven. 

Then  perish  our  estate, 

Wife,  child — by  their  hate. 
On  them  be  the  sin  ; 

Naught  from  us  can  they  win, 
We  share  his  glorious  empire. 

In  1573,  the  Psalms  were  rendered  in  German  verse  by 
Ambrose  Lobwasser,  professor  of  Jurisprudence  in  Konigs- 
berg.  In  his  translation  he  imitated  the  Genevan  version  of 
Marot,  and,  though  his  Psalms  had  little  merit,  they  were 
for  a  long  time  used  exclusively  in  some  of  the  German 
churches.  A  new  edition  of  his  Psalms  was  issued  in  1612 
Ijy  Maurice  of  Hessen,  with  which  were  printed  some  austere 
melodies  for  the  use  of  German  Christians.  The  influence  of 
many  of  the  early  German  Psalms  and  Hymns  is  still  felt 
among  the  German  Christians  of  the  old  and  the  new  world. 
The  impress  of  them  still  remains.  Wherever  you  meet  the 
German  Christian,  you  find  him  charged  with  these  noble 
and  evangelical  compositions.  Even  the  emigrant  is  sure, 
if  a  disciple,  to  carry  across  the  sea  in  his  blouse  or  wallet, 
his  black-covered  hymn-book. 

In  this  country,  beside  the  original  selections  from  the 
German  versification  of  the  Psalms,  the  Lutheran  Church  has 
included  in  its  book  of  praise,  Psalms  from  the  pens  of  Watts, 
Tate  and  Brady,  Joseph  Addison,  Charles  Wesley,  James 
Montgomery,  Timothy  Dwight,  John  Mason,  Henry  Francis 
Lyte,  Hariet  Auber  and  James  Merrick;  so  that  this  large 
and  influential  body  of  worshipers,  now,  as  in  the  age  of  the 
Reformation,  gives  David's  Psalms  a  respectable  place  in  the 
material  of  its  praise. 


106  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

From  Germany,  the  Reformation  passed  toward  the 
North,  and  established  its  supremacy  there,  while  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Swiss  and  German  Reformers  held  sway  over 
the  more  southern  countries.  In  Prussia,  Sweden,  Norway, 
Denmark,  Livonia,  and  neighboring  states,  the  Lutheran 
Liturgy  was  either  adopted  as  a  whole,  or  made  the  ))asis  of 
new  liturgies  for  the  regulation  of  religious  worship.  In 
all  these  countries  the  Psalms  and  Hymns  of  the  German 
poets  were  sung,  and  exerted  the  same  powerful  influence  in 
promoting  the  Reformation  there  as  in  Germany.  In  lower 
Germany,  the  historian,  Kurtz,  mentions  particularly  the 
surprisingly  potent  influence  of  Luther's  Psalms  and  Hymns. 

In  most  of  these  countries,  native  poets  employed  their 
talents  in  versifying  the  Psalms  in  their  own  native  tongues, 
but  of  their  versions  little  is  known. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  Gyllenhjelm  was  author  of  the 
' '  Psalter  in  Rhyme ' '  in  the  Swedish. 

In  Russia,  the  ' '  Psalms  sung  in  the  Churches  ' '  were 
printed  at  Nilna  in  1623. 

It  may  be  added  here  that  the  best  hymns  of  Germany  in. 
the  earliest  and  brightest  era  of  her  hymnology  were  modeled 
after  the  Psalms,  and  bear  evidence  of  their  divine  utterances 
having  inspired  the  pens  that  gave  them  to  the  Church. 
Especially  numerous  are  those  which  express  trust  in  God  in 
trial  or  conflict;  which  speak  of  Him  like  the  old  Hebrew 
Psalms,  as  a  rock,  a  fortress,  and  a  deliverer — they  are 
songs  to  mareh  to,  reviving  the  fainting  strength  after  many 
an  hour  of  weary  journeying;  blasts  of  the  priest's  trumpets 
before  which  many  a  stronghold  has  fallen;  chants  of  tarust 
and  triumph,  which  must  often  have  reverberated  from  the 
very  gates  of  heaven  as  they  accompanied  the  departing 
spirit  thither  and  mingled  with  the  new  song  oft  he  great 
multitude  inside. 

The  majestic  hymn  of  John  Gramann,  "Now  praise  the 
Lord,  my  soul,"  was  modeled  after  Psalm  One  hundred 
and  third;  and  Lobwasser's,  "  My  hope  doth  stand  in  God 
alone,"  after  Psalm  Thirty-seven.  Thus  we  are  indebted, 
says  Tholuck  in  the  introduction  to  his  commentary  on  the 
Psalms,  to  the  Psalms  as  models,  not  only  for  hymns  sung 
by  the  people,  but  for  choral  songs  in  general. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Psalms  in  the  Swiss  and  French  Reformation. 

Modern  Calvinism  can  regard  with  pride  the  place  of 
its  birth — Switzerland.  Though  crowded  by  its  powerful 
neighbors  into  a  narrow  place  by  the  Alps,  it  has  ever  been 
the  home  of  a  free,  brave  and  patriotic  race.  To  believe  in 
special  providences,  God  has  evidently,  from  the  earliest 
ages,  educated  the  Swiss  for  giving  origin  to  an  independent 
church.  From  a  native  love  for  freedom,  and  long  strug- 
gles to  maintain  their  independence,  where,  in  Reformation 
limes,  a  fitter  refuge  for  one,  radical  in  his  opposition  to  a 
tyrannical  hierarchy,  than  the  land  of  the  Swiss  !  When 
Calvin  was  rejected  by  France,  he  was  welcomed  to  Ge- 
neva, where  he  found  an  element  already  congenial  to  his 
rigid,  yet  free  principles.  Before  the  visit  of  that  Reform- 
er, Switzerland  had  l)egun  a  church,  distinguished  by  its 
radicalism.  Through  the  influence  of  Farel  and  Viret,  the 
Presbyterianism  of  the  Alps  had  been  saved  from  that  con- 
servatism toward  Popery  that  characterized  the  German  and 
English  establishments,  and  which  to-day  by  its  natural 
fruits,  is  disturbing  the  Lutheran  and  Episcopal  commun- 
ions. Calvin  only  promoted,  unfolded  and  established  the 
principles  that  now  bear  his  name. 

With  the  Reformation  of  Geneva,  that  in  France,  the 
Netherlands,  and  Scotland  were  intimately  connected.  Un- 
der Calvin,  Geneva  became  the  metropolis  of  the  Reformed 
churches.  Its  form  of  government,  its  creed,  its  liturgy, 
the  principle  of  its  Psalmody,  became  the  model  for  the 
Huguenots,  the  Walloons,  and  the  Scotch.  The  Theological 
School  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone,  became  the  resort  of  the 
learned  men  from  many  lands,  where  primitive  principles 
were  imbibed  and  thence  carried  everywhere. 

In  its  Psalmody  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  Re- 
formation, differed  in  one  important  respect  from  that  of 
the  German  Lutheran  Church  ;    its  songs  were  modeled  al- 

(107) 


108  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

most  exclusively  after  the  Psalms  and  spiritual  songs  of  the 
Scriptures.  As  has  been  already  remarked,  human  compo- 
sition had  no  prominent  place  in  its  worship.  Hymns,  in  ex- 
ceptional cases,  may  have  been  used,  but  the  Psalm-book  of 
Geneva,  and  its  kindred  churches,  was  inspired.  Of  its  in- 
spired songs,  the  Psalms  held  the  principal  place.  The  Par- 
aphrases were  few  in  number,  nor  was  there  in  Switzerland 
and  France  the  same  effort  as  in  Scotland  at  a  later  date,  to 
multiply  them.  Until  the  power  of  the  Huguenots  was 
broken,  and  the  Calvinistic  theory  had  lost  much  of  its  in- 
fluence in  France  and  the  Netherlands,  the  Psalms  continued 
almost  the  sole  praise  of  the  Church. 

The  Presbyterian  churches  of  the  Reformation,  in  se- 
lecting the  material  of  their  Psalmody  from  the  Bible,  aimed 
to  conform  their  metrical  translations  as  closely  as  possible 
to  the  expression  and  sense  of  the  original.  The  Scriptures 
were  the  sole  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  to  depart  from 
them  unnecessarily,  was  sacrilege. 

The  ordinance  of  singing  praise  was  held  in  the  high- 
est respect  among  the  Genevan  Reformers.  Any  trifling 
as  to  the  matter  or  form  of  praise  was  severely 
punished.  From  the  registers  of  the  Genevan  Council 
and  Consistory,  we  learn  that  a  man  was  banished  from 
the  city  for  remarking,  ' '  II  chante  un  beau  Psaume ' '  (He 
chants  a  good  Psalm),  when  he  heard  an  ass  bray.  The 
same  penalty  was  inflicted  upon  another,  who,  on  presenting 
to  his  bride  an  account  book,  said,  ' '  Tuez,  madame,  voci 
votre,  meilleur  Psaume  ' '  (Sing,  madam,  with  your  voice, 
the  best  Psalm). 

The  history  of  Psalmody  in  the  Calvinistic  churches  of 
the  continent  begins  properly  with  Zwingle.  Before  Calvin 
came  to  Geneva,  this  Reformer  had  introduced  metrical 
Psalmody  into  Switzerland.  What  the  matter  of  praise  was 
can  only  be  conjectured.  At  an  early  date  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  Psalms  had  been  translated  into  the  French,  which 
was  the  language  of  parts  of  Switzerland,  and  may  have 
been  chanted  by  the  Swiss,  as  by  the  Waldenses.  The  prob- 
ability is  that  Zwingle  and  his  followers  imitated  the  Chris- 
tians of  Bohemia,  with  whom  they  seem  to  have  held  friend- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    109 

[y  intercourse,  and  so  adopted  their  hymns,  and  the  Psalms 
versified  by  Huss. 

According  to  Kurtz  the  adoption  of  Psalmody  into  the 
worship  of  the  Reformed  churches  of  the  French  persuasion, 
was  effected  chiefly  by  John  Zwick,  a  clergyman  in  Con- 
stance. In  1530  he  published  a  small  hymn-book,  with  ver- 
sions of  some  Psalms,  adapted  to  Lutheran  tunes.  Of  the 
character  of  this  hymn-book  we  know  nothing. 

However,  it  is  evident,  that  until  the  days  of  Calvin's 
residence  in  Geneva,  the  Psalmody  of  the  Swiss  Church  had 
been  informal.  To  Calvin  himself  belongs  the  credit  of  re- 
ducing that  Psalmody  to  a  system,  and  of  giving  to  it  a 
character  that  distinguished  it  for  more  than  a  century. 

Calvin  was  a  great  admirer  of  the  Psalms.  While  he 
was  yet  at  Orleans,  in  the  study  of  the  law  under  Pierre 
de  I'Etoile,  his  attention  was  especially  turned  to  this  book 
of  God's  word,  and  his  private  opinion  of  it  he  has  left  in 
the  preface  of  his  Commentary  on  the  Psalms.  Says  he  : 
"Not  without  good  grounds  am  I  wont  to  call  this  book  an 
anatomy  of  all  parts  of  the  soul,  since  no  one  can  experience 
emotions,  whose  portrait  he  could  not  behold  reflected  in  its 
mirror.  Yes.  the  Holy  Spirit  has  there  depicted  in  the  most 
vivid  manner  every  species  of  pain,  affliction,  fear,  doubt, 
hope,  care,  anxiety  and  turbulent  emotion  through  which  the 
hearts  of  men  are  chased.  Other  portions  of  the  Scriptures 
contain  commandments  whose  transmission  the  Lord  en- 
joine  I  upon  his  servants ;  but  in  the  Psalms,  the  Prophets 
communing  with  God  and  uncovering  their  most  inmost  feel- 
ings, call  and  urge  every  reader  to  self-examination  to  such 
a  degree,  that  of  the  numerous  infirmities  to  which  we  are 
liable,  and  of  the  many  failings  which  oppress  us,  not  one 
remains  concea'ed.  How  great  and  rare  again  for  the 
human  heart  to  be  thus  driven  out  of  all  its  hiding  places, 
liberated  from  hypocris}^  (that  most  fearful  of  vices)  and 
exposed  to  the  light.  Lastly,  if  calling  on  God  is  the  surest 
means  of  our  salvation — if  better  and  more  reliable  direc- 
tions for  it  than  those  contained  in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  are 
not  to  be  obtained,  then  everyone  who  reads  this  book  has 
attained  to  an  essential  part  of  the  Divine  doctrine.    Earnest 


110  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

prayer  originates  in  our  sense  of  need  ;  afterwards  in  our 
faith  in  the  Divine  promises.  The  reader  of  the  Psalms 
finds  himself  both  aroused  to  feel  his  misery,  and  exhorted 
to  seek  for  its  remedy.  The  Psalter  unfolds  every  encourage- 
ment to  prayer.  It  is  not  merely  confined  to  promises,  but 
men  are  introduced  who,  on  the  one  hand  invited  by  God, 
and  on  the  other  hindered  by  the  tlesh,  take  courage  in 
prayer  :  if  therefore,  we  are  beset  by  doubt  and  scruple, 
here  we  may  learn  to  combat,  till  the  disenthralled  spirit 
rises  anew  to  God.  And  more  than  this,  we  may  learn 
prayerfully  to  struggle  through  hesitation,  fear  and  faint- 
heartedness, till  comfort  be  attained.  For,  be  it  remem- 
bered, that  though  unbelief  keeps  the  door  shut  to  our 
prayers,  we  must  not  desist  when  in  our  wavering  we  are  being 
tossed  to  and  fro,  but  persevere  until  faith  mounts  victo- 
riously from  her  struggles.  Again  the  Psalms  inspire  us 
with  the  most  desirable  of  all  things,  in  not  only  teaching  us 
to  approach  God  in  confidence,  but  to  openly  unbare  before 
him  all  those  failings  which  a  false  sense  of  shame  otherwise 
forbids  us  to  own.  They  furnish,  moreover,  the  clearest 
directions  how  we  may  render  to  God  that  sacrifice  of  praise 
which  he  declares  as  most  acceptable  to  him.  You  cannot 
read  anywhere  more  glorious  praises  of  God's  peculiar 
grace  towards  his  church  or  of  his  works;  you  cannot  find 
anywhere  such  an  enumeration  of  man's  deliverances  or 
praises  for  the  glorious  proofs  of  his  fatherly  care  for  us, 
or  a  more  perfect  representation  to  praise  him  becomingly, 
or  more  fervent  exhortations  to  the  discharge  of  that  holy 
duty.  But  however  rich  the  book  may  prove  in  all  these 
respects  to  fit  us  for  a  holy,  pious,  and  just  life,  its  chief 
lesson  is  how  we  are  to  bear  the  cross,  and  to  give  the  true 
evidence  of  our  obedience,  by  parting  with  our  affections,  to 
submit  ourselves  to  God,  to  suffer  our  lives  to  be  entirely 
guided  by  his  will,  so  that  the  bitterest  trial,  because 
he  sends  it,  seems  sweet  to  us.  Finally,  not  only  is  the 
goodness  of  God  praised  in  general  terms  to  secure  our 
perfect  resignation  to  him,  and  to  expect  his  aid  in  every 
time  of  need,  but  the  free  forgiveness  of  our  sins,  which 
alone  can  effect  our  peace  of  conscience  and  reconciliation  to 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    Ill 

God,  are  in  particular  so  strongly  recommended,  that  there 
is  nothing  wanting  to  the  knowledge  of  eternal  life. ' ' 

The  idea  of  a  special  versification  of  the  Psalms  for  the 
worship  of  the  Reformed  Church  was  made  to  Calvin  by 
Zwingle.  Before  moving  in  the  matter,  Calvin  consulted 
Luther,  and  it  was  during  this  consultation  that  the  Psalms 
of  Marot  made  their  appearance. 

Clement  Marot  was  a  Frenchman,  and  was  born  at 
Cahors,  in  Querci,  near  Toulouse,  in  1495.  Like  his  father, 
Jean  Marot,  he  was  valet  de  Chambre  to  Francis  I ;  and  also 
page  to  Margaret  of  France,  wife  of  the  duke  of  Alencon. 
In  1521  he  accompanied  the  duke  in  the  Italian  campaign, 
and  was  wounded  and  made  prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Pavia. 
Gaining  his  freedom,  he  returned  to  Paris,  but  being  sus- 
pected for  complicity  with  the  colonists,  he  was  again  im- 
prisoned. Being  brought  before  the  Lieutenant-criminel, 
he  was  reproached  on  account  of  his  former  irreligion  and 
the  licentiousness  of  his  writings,  but  gained  no  more  by  his 
earnest  solicitations  than  to  1)0  removed  from  the  miserable 
prison  of  Chatelet  to  that  of  Chartres.  It  was  while  incar- 
cerated in  Chartres  that  he  composed  his  Enfer  and  revised 
his  Roman  de  la  Rose.  When  Francis  I  returned  from 
his  captivity  in  Spain,  Marot  was  set  free,  A.  D.  1526. 
After  this  he  returned  to  the  court  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre  ; 
then  to  that  of  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara  and  in  1536  returned 
to  Paris.  But  having  publicly  avowed  himself  a  disciple  of 
Calvin,  he  fled  from  persecution,  and  resided  at  Geneva. 
Quitting  Geneva,  he  went  to  Lyons,  where  he  is  said  to 
have  renounced  Calvinism.  After  engaging  in  another 
campaign  under  Francis  I,  in  his  Italian  wars,  he  returned 
to  Piedmont,  and  died  at  Turin  in  1544,  aged  50  years. 

Marot  seems  to  have  led  a  licentious  life  in  his  earlier 
years,  and  there  is  little  probability  that  he  was  a  Christian, 
while  espousing  the  doctrines  of  Geneva.  He  was  one  of 
those  free  spirits  that  opposed  popery  because  of  its  tyrannj^; 
and  enlisted  his  sympathies  in  the  cause  of  Reformers  more 
because  of  their  enmity  to  the  Hierarchy  than  from  any 
convictions  of  his  own  sins.  His  renunciation  of  the 
reformed  cause  shows  his  vascillating  disposition.      But  God 


112  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

had  chosen  him  as  an  important  instrument  for  promoting 
the  true  religion.  For  the  part  of  a  poet  to  which  God  had 
called  him,  he  was  well  fitted. 

Clement  Marot  was  one  of  France's  best  poets.  His 
ballads,  fables,  pastorals,  elegies,  epigrams  were  extremely 
popular.  His  verses  are  filled  with  natural  beauties  La 
Fonhiine  acknowleged  himself  his  disciple  and  contributed 
greatly  to  restore  to  credit  the  works  of  this  ancient  poet. 

On  his  return  to  Paris  from  his  residence  in  the  court  of 
the  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  he  was  persuaded  by  Vatablus, 
professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Paris,  to  undertake 
the  rendering  of  David's  Psalms  into  French  verse.  In  his 
attempt  he  was  assisted  by  Francis  Melin  de  S.  Gelays, 
and  other  learned  men,  whose  prose  translations  of  the 
Psalms  formed  the  model  of  his  poetical  version.  Before 
leaving  Paris  on  account  of  his  Calvinism  he  had  versified 
thirty  of  the  Psalms.  These  thirty  were  printed  in  Paris 
and  were  dedicated  to  Francis  I.  After  removing  to 
Geneva,  Marot,  with  the  encouragement  and  aid  of  Calvin, 
completed  twenty  more  Psalms.  These  twenty,  with  the 
thirty  of  the  Paris  edition,  and  eight  others,  the  author  or 
authors  of  which  are  not  known,  were  printed  at  Rome,  in 
1542,  by  the  command  of  the  Pope,  and  under  the  supervision 
of  Theodore  Drust,  a  German,  "printer  in  order  to  his 
holiness. ' '  This  edition  was  printed  in  the  Gothic  character, 
in  octavo,  and  was  without  the  name  of  either  the  printer  or 
place  of  printing.  Although  sanctioned  by  the  highest 
authority  of  the  Catholic  church,  this  version  was  censured 
by  the  faculty  of  divinity  in  the  Paris  Theological  College, 
who  were  afterward  instrumental  in  the  persecution  of 
Marot,  for  his  efforts  in  versifying  the  Psalms. 

In  1543,  the  version  printed  in  Rome,  was  issued  at 
Geneva,  and  no  doubt  at  the  instance  of  Calvin,  for  it  con- 
tained a  preface  written  by  him,  and  dated  Jan.  10,  1543. 
With  the  Geneva  edition  was  printed  an  agreement  with  the 
printers  whereby  they  were  to  furnish  a  certain  sum  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor  refugees  at  Geneva.  Marot's  Psalms, 
which  were  cast  in  the  same  mould  as  his  ballads  and 
roundeaux,     constituted    the    Psalmody    of    the   Reformed 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.   113 

Church,  until  Theodore  Beza  furnished  the  remaining  Psalms 
in  popular  verse. 

Nothing  more  can  be  gathered  concerning  the  Psalms 
versified  by  Beza  than  that  they  were  translated  in  imitation 
of  Marot's;  took  their  place  with  those  of  that  great  poet  in 
the  Psalmody  of  the  times  and  were  bound  up  with  his  in 
the  Genevan  Catechism  in  1553,  or,  according  to  Kurtz,  in 
1555. 

The  dedication  of  Marot's  first  Psalms  to  Francis  I, 
was  made  on  account  of  the  satisfaction  that  sovereign  had 
expressed  when  some  of  them  were  presented  for  condemna- 
tion by  the  Sorbonne  doctors.  The  following  is  the  poet's 
royal  epigram: — 

"  Since,  O  Sire,  it  is  your  pleasure  that  I  pursue  the  royal  work  of 
the  Psalms  which  I  have  begun;  and  since  all  those  who  love  God  desire 
the  same,  I  reckon  I  have  a  valid  license  to  proceed  in  it.  Wherefore  let 
whoever  pleases  take  offense  at  it,  for  they  who  cannot  be  reconciled  to  a 
design  of  such  important  use  ought  to  know,  if  they  are  not  sensible  of  it 
already,  that  while  I  do  your  majesty  a  pleasure,  I  am  glad,  however 
much  I  do  offend  such  people." 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  same  leaf  that  contained  the 
dedication,  began  an  address  to  the  ladies  of  France,  in 
which  the  poet  declared  his  design  to  add  to  the  happiness 
of  his  fair  readers  by  giving  them  divine  songs  in  place  of 
their  amorous  ditties;  to  banish  from  the  world  the  foolish 
and  fickle  Cupid;  to  inspire  all  hearts  with  a  passion  in 
which  is  no  torment,  and  fill  all  homes  with  the  praises  of 
Jehovah.     This  address  concludes  thus: — 

"  Thrice  happy  they  who  may  behold 
And  listen  in  this  age  of  gold! 
As  by  the  plow  the  laborer  strays, 
And  carmen  wend  the  public  waj's, 
And  tradesmen  in  their  shops  shall  swell. 
The  voice  of  Psalm  or  Canticle, 
Singing  to  solace  toil  again 
From  Avoods  shall  come  a  sweeter  strain; 
Shepherd  and  shepherdess  shall  vie 
In  many  a  tender  Psalmody; 
And  the  Creator's  name  prolong 
As  rock  and  stream  return  the  song. 
Begin  then,  ladies  fair,  begin 
The  age  renewed  that  knows  no  sin! 
And  with  light  hearts  that  want  no  wing. 
Sing  from  the  holy  song-book,  sing." 


114  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

The  first  Psalms  of  Marot,  coming  from  one  who  at 
the  time,  was  not  suspected  for  any  complicity  with  the 
Reformed,  and  being  issued  simply  as  rhyming  ballads  and 
not  as  sacred  songs  for  sacred  purposes,  were  taken  up  oy 
the  populace  and  sung  by  Reformed,  Catholic  and  Skeptic 
alike.  Surpassing  any  of  this  famous  poet's  former  pro- 
ductions, his  Psalms  gained  a  celebrity  and  possessed  a  cir- 
culation far  beyond  any  of  his  madrigals  and  sonnets.  His 
remaining  twenty  and  those  soon  afterward  composed  by 
Beza  were  equally  popular.  Psalm  singing  at  this  time  was 
carried  almost  to  the  point  of  frenzy.  The  demand  for  the 
new  songs  swept  like  wild-fire  over  France,  so  that  in  a  short 
time  the  printers  could  not  supply  the  demand.  Edition 
after  edition  was  issued,  but  still  the  cry  was  for  more. 
The  Psalms  were  sung  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  by  men 
of  all  trades,  and  all  classes,  and  became  ' '  one  of  the  chief 
ingredients  in  the  happiness  of  social  life. ' '  Especially  in 
the  vineyards  of  Provence,  in  the  market-boats  of  the  Loire 
and  the  Rhone,  and  among  the  weavers  of  Flanders,  were 
the  melodies  of  these  inspired  songs  heard,  as  they  were  sung 
to  the  music  of  the  lute,  violin  and  guitar.  The  Catholics 
might  be  seen  mingling  with  the  multitude,  with  their 
Psalm-books  in  their  hands,  entering  heartily  into  the  popu- 
lar excitement.  Even  the  Catholic  clergy  participated  in 
the  enthusiasm;  nor  was  their  fever  abated  until  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  Psalms  were  being  sung  in  the  private  and 
public  worship  of  the  Protestants. 

The  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza  supplied  the  want  of 
Christian  families  for  sacred  songs,  and  it  was  not  long  un- 
til God's  praise  was  sung  in  the  homes  of  His  people  and 
through  the  sentiments  of  his  own  ancient  servants.  No 
gentlemen  professing  the  Reformed  religion  would  sit  down 
at  his  table  without  praising  God  by  singing.  Yea,  it  was  a 
special  part  of  morning  and  evening  worship  in  their  several 
houses  to  sing  God's  praises.  When  the  Catholics  were  for- 
bidden longer  to  engage  in  the  National  pastime.  Psalm- 
singing  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  badge  of  what  the  French 
Papists  called  Lutheranism,  and  to  be  found  singing  a 
Psalm  of  Marot  or  Beza  was  considered  suflicient  warrant 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION,    115 

for  the  infliction  of  the  penalty  pronounced  on  all  heretics. 
The  popular  rage  for  Psalm- singing  was  not  confined 
to  the  lower  ranks  of  society  in  France,  but  entered  and 
iifected  the  Palace  of  Royalty  itself.  It  was  a  common 
thing  in  the  court  of  Francis  I,  for  the  King  and  Queen 
with  their  nobles,  to  refresh  themselves  with  metrical 
Psalms.  It  was  a  fashion  in  the  royal  circle  for  each  one 
to  select  a  favorite  Psalm,  and  sing  it  especially.  A  favor- 
ite Psalm  of  Catharine  de  Medicis  was: — 

To  thee,  0  Lord,  my  cries  ascend, 

O  haste  to  my  relief, 
And  with  accustomed  pity  hear 

The  accents  of  my  grief. 
Instead  of  offering,  let  my  prayer 

Like  morning  incense  rise; 
My  uplifted  hands  supply  the  place 

Of  evening  sacrifice. 

Anthony,  King  of  Navarre,  chose  "  Revenge  moy,  preu 

le  querelle, " — "  Stand  up,  O  Lord,  to  revenge  my  quarrel." 

Diane  de  Poictiers,  the  favorite  of  Henry  II,  chose   "  Du 

fond  de  ma  pensie, " — "From  the  depths  of  my  heart  have  I 

cried  unto  thee."     The  Queen  sang: — 

Ne  vucilles  pas,  0,  sire, 
Me  reprendre  en  tonire. 

"Rebuke  me  not  in  thine  indignation." 

Ilenry  II,  while  yet  Dauphin,  was  a  great  hunter,  and 
chose,  appropriate  to  his  favorite  recreation,  "  Ainsi  qu'on 
oit  le  cerf  bruire, " — "As  the  heart  panteth  after  the  water 
brooks."  King  Henry  continued  to  solace  himself  by  sing- 
ing the  Psalms  till  the  day  of  his  death.  This  we  learn  from 
a  letter  written  to  Catharine  de  Mt  dicis  by  a  gentleman  sub- 
scribing himself  Villeinadon :  ' '  but  if  any  person  loved  them 
(the  Psalms)  dearly,  and  commonly  sang  them  and  caused 
to  be  sung,  it  was  the  late  King  Henry,  who  loved  them  so 
well  that  good  men  blessed  God  for  it;  and  his  minions  and 
his  mistress  feigned  so  great  a  love  for  them  that  they  were 
want  to  say,  "Sir,  shall  not  this  be  mine,  give  me  that  if 
you  please  ?  ' '  insomuch  that  the  good  King  had  much  to  do 
to  please  every  one's  fancy,  according  to  his  desire.  Never- 
theless he  kept  for  himself  the  following  Psalm,  as  you  re- 
member:— 


116  David's  haep  in  song  and  story. 

The  man  is  blessed,  -wlio  fears  the  Lord, 

Nor  only  worship  paj-s, 
But  keeps  his  steps  composed  with  care 

To  his  appointed  ways,  etc. 

He  himself  made  a  tune  to  this  Psalm — which  was  very 
good  and  pleasant — and  caused  it  to  be  siinfj  so  often  that  he 
plainly  showed  he  had  an  earnest  desire  to  be  that  blessed 
man  whom  David  describes  in  the  said  Psalm,  and  to  see 
you  become  the  fertile  vine  therein  mentioned.  This  was 
when  he  was  recovering  from  his  sickness  at  Angoulesme, 
which  I  found  so  much  abated  that  he  began  to  sing  the 
said  Psalm  with  lutes,  violins,  spinnets  and  flutes  attending 
with  voices." 

It  was  during  the  reign  of  Henry  that  Paris  was  thrown 
into  a  ferment  by  the  students  of  the  university  of  that  city. 
The  most  frequented  promenade  at  this  time  in  Paris  was 
the  Pre-aux-clercs,  situated  where  a  part  of  the  Fauburg 
Saint  Germain  is  at  present.  The  students  belonging  to  the 
university  were,  generally,  friendly  to  the  Calvinistic  re- 
ligion, and  many  of  them  not  only  made  a  profession  of  it, 
but  publicly  defended  it.  A  custom  of  the  students  for 
years  had  been  to  assemble  for  recreation  and  amusement  in 
the  Pre-aux-clercs;  but  the  monks  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Vic- 
tor, on  one  occasion,  refusing  them  the  liberty  they  had 
long  enjoyed,  the  opposing  parties  fell  to  wrangling,  and 
finally  came  to  blows.  The  students  being  the  stronger, 
carried  their  point  and  the  monks  resigned  to  them  the 
public  promenade.  From  this  time  the  Pre-aux-clercs  be- 
came the  rendezvous  of  the  Protestants,  who  would  meet 
there  on  the  summer  evenings  and  sing  their  favorite 
Psalms.  The  multitudes  who  were  accustomed  to  assemble 
here  to  participate  in  the  popular  games,  at  first  laughed  at 
the  Psalmody  of  the  Christians.  But  the  number  of  the 
Psalm-singers  increasing  and  their  melodies  growing  in  their 
fervor,  the  players  left  their  sports,  and  gathered  about  the 
Huguenots,  some  to  listen,  and  many  to  engage  in  the 
music.  So  popular  did  this  summer-evening  Psalm-singing 
become,  that  hundreds  of  the  citizens  of  Paris  resorted  to 
the  Pre-aux-clercs  as  to  an  entertainment.  F-ven  the  nobles 
weie  present  and  participated.     Anthony  de  Bourbon  and 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    117 

Jane  de  Albert  were  among  the  habitues  of  the  promenade 
on  these  occasions.  Theodore  Beza  thus  speaks  of  the 
assembly  of  Protestants  at  the  Pre-aux-clercs: — "  Thus 
the  assembly  multijjlied  daily  at  Paris,  where  it  happened 
that  some  being  in  the  place  called  Pre-aux-clercs,  a  public 
place  of  the  university,  began  to  sing  Psalms,  which  being 
heard,  a  great  many  of  those  who  were  walking  or  playing 
at  divers  games,  joined  the  company  that  was  singing,  some 
for  the  novelty  of  it,  and  some  to  bear  part  in  the  music. 
This  continued  for  some  days  in  a  very  great  assembly, 
where  were  present  the  King  of  Navarre  himself  with  many 
lords  and  gentlemen,  both  of  France  and  other  nations, 
who  fell  a  sino-ing.  And  though  in  a  great  multitude  there 
is  frequently  much  confusion,  yet  there  was  such  a  harmony 
and  devotion,  that  every  one  present  was  ravished  with  it; 
even  those  who  could  not  sing,  nay  the  most  ignorant,  got 
upon  the  walls  round  about,  to  hear  the  singing,  and  de- 
clared that  it  was  ill-done  to  forbid  so  ffood  a  thinof. " 

Thus  were  the  Psalms  carried  among  the  multitudes, 
where  they  became  one  of  the  prime  agencies  in  promoting 
the  progress  of  pure  Christianity,  By  these  songs,  the  truths 
of  God's  word  were  disseminated  with  a  rapidity  not  equalled 
even  by  the  preaching  of  evangelists  and  teachers.  Their 
melody  was  heard  in  many  a  nook  and  corner  of  Catholicism 
and  infidelity,  where  the  voice  of  the  Reformed  clergy  was 
never  heard.  Hence  it  was  that  when  the  Reformation  began 
to  appear  in  France  and  Switzerland  as  in  Germany,  thousands 
w^ere  found  infected  where  there  was  the  least  suspicion  of 
heresy.  The  whole  French  court  seemed  Calvinistic;  mass 
was  forgotten,  meat  served  during  Lent,  the  authority  of 
Bishop  and  Pope  despised,  and,  under  the  toleration  of 
Catharine  de  Medicis,  the  Reformed  clergy  proclaimed  their 
principles  in  the  royal  palace,  crowds  composing  their 
assembly,  while  a  poor  Jacobin  who  preached  the  Lent  ser- 
mons at  Fontainbleau,  had  no  audience.  "  Heresy,  says  an 
eminent  Jesuit,  was  seen  to  enter  the  palace  of  the  most 
Christian  King;  and  it  may  be  said  that  there  it  exercised 
complete  sway." 

That  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  for  reform,   and  the 


118  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

introduction  of  them  into  the  services  of  the  Swiss  and 
Huguenot  Churches  Avould  call  forth  bitter  persecution  from 
a  Church  whose  mightiest  argument  has  always  been  the 
sword  and  the  guillotine,  was  to  be  expected.  A  fervor,  the 
natural  offspring  of  inspired  truth,  could  not  awaken  a  kin- 
dred fervor  in  the  hearts  of  men  whose  power  was  secure 
only  in  a  popular  ignorance  of  the  word  of  God,  but 
aroused  resistance,  such  as,  failing  in  accomplishing  its 
object  by  denunciations  and  decrees,  ended  in  that  grand 
consummation  of  tyranny,  the  blood  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
day. 

At  an  early  stage  of  the  Psalm-singing  in  France,  the 
Catholic  clergy  proclaimed  Marot  a  heretic  and  forced  him 
to  flee  to  Geneva  for  refuge.  When  individual  denunciation 
failed,  an  attempt  was  made  to  secure  a  public  prohilntion 
from  the  king.  But  Francis  I,  as  we  have  seen,  paid  no 
attention  at  first  to  the  entreaties  of  the  Sorbonne  doctors, 
but  complimented  Marot  for  what  he  had  already  done  and 
urged  him  to  complete  the  versification  of  the  entire  book  of 
Psalms.  He  did  more  than  this  :  he  made  a  request  of  the 
poet  that  he  should  send  a  copy  of  his  Psalms  to  Charles  V, 
then  emperor  of  Germany  and  Spain,  Marot  complied  with 
this  request  and  was  gratified  and  encouraged  by  a  letter 
from  Charles,  in  which  he  presented  him  with  two  hundred 
Spanish  pistols,  expressed  himself  satisfied  with  the  Psalms 
already  versified,  and  pressed  on  him  the  importance  of  com- 
pleting the  version,  requesting  him  especially  to  send  as  soon 
as  possible,  a  metrical  version  of  Psalm  105th — "Con- 
fitemini  Domino  quoniam  bonus,"  as  it  is  called  in  the 
Latin — because  he  was  particularly  fond  of  it.  But  evil 
councils  prevailed.  The  Nuncio  of  the  Pope  complained  to 
the  King  of  the  novelty  of  the  Psalm-singing  and  warned  him 
of  its  pernicious  influence  and  dangerous  tendency.  To  the 
efforts  of  the  Nuncio  were  added  those  of  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine,  a  man  of  distinction  and  influence  at  the  Parisian 
court.  The  Cardinal,  aware  of  the  difiiculty  of  persuading 
the  King  by  a  personal  appeal,  undertook  to  influence  him 
through  the  agency  of  Diane  de  Poictiers,  who  was  known 
as  "the  lovely  patroness"    of    "the  Holy   Psalm-book." 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    119 

Diane  was  not  only  a  Psalm-singer  but  a  reader  of  the 
Bible,  both  of  which  were  regarded  as  evidence  of  Lutheran- 
ism.  Lorraine  began  with  her  by  finding  fault  with  the 
Psalms  of  David  and  commending  the  amatory  elegancies 
of  the  odes  of  Horace.  Diane  consented  to  surrender  the 
Psalm-book,  but  retained  her  Bible  because  the  Queen  Cath- 
arine de  Medicis  possessed  one.  On  one  occasion,  the  Cardinal 
entering  her  apartment,  found  the  Bible  lying  upon  the  table. 
He  immediately  crossed  himself,  smote  upon  his  breast,  cast 
the  Book  upon  the  floor,  and  otherwise  so  well  acted  his 
part,  that  the  fair  penitent  gave  up  her  Bible,  and  for  the 
time  consented  to  do  penance  by  saying  two  masses  instead 
of  one. 

Through  Diane,  it  is  probable  that  Lorraine  gained  his 
point  with  the  King  ;  a  royal  prohibition  was  issued  against 
the  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza.  To  be  found  singing  a 
Psalm  under  any  pretext  was  declared  criminal.  If  anj^  one 
were  discovered  in  the  act,  he  was  to  be  fined  two  hundred 
francs,  and  to  have  his  Psalm-book  taken  from  him  and 
tjiven  to  the  common  hangman  to  be  burned. 

The  Psalm-singing  of  the  Pre-aux-clercs  was  brought 
before  Parliament  by  the  clergy,  but  here,  so  many  of  the 
members  were  found  implicated  in  the  assembling  at  the 
promenade,  that  the  summons  of  Cardinal  Bertrand  for  the 
assembling  of  the  Parliament  were  at  first  unheeded.  Here 
too,  however,  evil  councils  at  last  prevailed  and  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Huguenots  began  anew,  and  continued  without 
interruption  till  about  1562,  when  the  conference  in  the 
Abbey  of  Poissy,  near  Paris,  was  held.  An  edict  of  tolera- 
tion Vvas  issued,  and  for  a  time  the  Protestants  enjoyed  the 
liberty  of  worshiping  in  accordance  with  their  preferences. 
Soon  after  the  edict  of  toleration,  as  we  are  informed  by 
Bayle,  a  license  was  issued  by  Henry  IX  to  Anthony 
Vincent,  a  bookseller  of  Lyons,  for  the  printing  of  Marot 
and  Beza's  Psalms.     The  license  is  in  the  following  terms  : 

' '  By  a  special  favor  of  full  power  and  royal  authority, 
we  have  given  and  granted  to  Anthony  Vincent,  Bookseller 
at  Lyons,  the  privilege,  leave,  license  and  permission  to 
print,  or  cause  to  be  printed  for  the  space  of  ten  years  next 


120  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

following,  all  the  Psalms  of  the  Prophet  David,  translated 
according  to  the  truth  of  the  Hebre^v  text,  turned  into 
French  metre,  and  set  to  good  music,  as  it  is  well  known, 
and  have  been  examined  by  men  learned  in  the  Holy  Script- 
ures and  in  the  said  languages  and  also  in  the  art  of  music." 
—Dated,  Oct.  19,   1561. 

The  "men  learned  in  the  Holy  Scriptures"  were  no 
other  than  the  Doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  had  so  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  former  persecutions.  That  the 
Sorbonne  gave  its  sanction  to  the  printing  of  the  Psalms, 
appears  from  the  writings  of  Jurien,  who  has  produced  this 
sanction  in  the  following  words  : — "We,  Doctors  of  Divinity, 
whose  names  are  here  subscribed,  do  certify  that  in  a  certain 
translation  of  the  Psalms  presented  to  us,  beginning  at  the 
Forty-eighth  Psalm,  with  these  words,  '  C'est  en  fatres  sainte 
cite,'  and  ending  with  the  verse,  '  Chante  a  jamais  son 
Empire,'  we  have  found  nothing  contrary  to  our  Catholic 
faith,  but  everything  agreeable  to  it  and  the  truth  of  the 
Hebrew  text.  In  testimony  whereof,  we  have  signed  this 
present  certificate,  Oct.  16,  1561." 

After  the  impression  of  the  Psalms  had  been  made  by 
Anthony,  and  before  they  were  issued  to  the  public,  they 
were  examined  and  approved  by  Mr.  Josse  Schelling,  Por- 
tionary  of  St.  Nicolas  at  Brussels,  deputed  for  this  end  by 
the  council  at  Brabant. 

The  Catholic  clergy  did  not  contine  themselves  to  the 
issue  of  decrees  and  the  execution  of  penalties  under  the 
influence  of  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  the  odes  of  Horace,  and 
the  obscene  poems  of  Tribullus  and  Catullus  were  translated 
into  French  verse  and  introduced  into  the  court  at  Paris. 
The  Catholic  laity  were  permitted  to  imitate  the  Psalm- 
singers,  and  so  assembled  in  the  streets  and  sang  their  hymns 
and  odes  while  they  held  before  them  little  images  of  the 
Virgin. 

As  they  would  pass  from  street  to  street,  they  would 
invite  all  the  persons  whom  they  would  meet  to  join  them  in 
singing,  and  if  any  would  refuse,  they  were  maltreated,  and 
their  complaints,  when  made  to  the  civil  authorities, 
despised. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    121 

The  respite  following  the  edict  of  1562  did  not  last  long. 
The  persecution  broke  forth  anew,  and  the  blood  of  France's 
best  citizens  again  reddened  her  soil.  The  Papal  party  contin- 
ually denounced  the  Huguenots,  and  urged  the  people  in 
many  districts  to  deeds  of  violence  ;  so  that  the  party  of  the 
Keform  was  compelled  to  organize  and  arm.  The  struggle 
between  the  opposing  forces  was  fierce,  and  continued  for 
many  years.  But  the  Huguenots,  unable  to  succeed  against 
the  powerful  forces  of  the  Government,  were  driven  from 
almost  every  battle  field,  and  thousands  of  families  were 
forced  into  exile.  The  tale  of  these  persecutions  and  their 
consequent  horrors  form  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  of 
history.  The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  on  the  21:th  of 
August,  1572,  was  but  a  representation  of  the  bloody  scenes 
all  over  France  and  the  Low  Countries. 

After  sixty  years  of  persecution,  the  Protestants  of 
France  were  restored  to  comparative  liberty  of  conscience  in 
their  worship,  by  the  celebrated  edict  of  Nantes,  promul- 
gated in  1598.  But  peace  under  this  edict  was  not  long 
enjoyed.  Twelve  years  after  its  promulgation,  the  King 
who  issued  it  was  assassinated,  when  the  elements  of  discord 
broke  loose  with  more  than  usual  fury.  For  nearly  a 
century,  the  rage  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  constantly 
exerted  in  the  destruction  of  the  Huguenots,  and  found  a 
satisfaction  in  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  by  Louis 
XIV,  in  October,  1685.  This  was  the  death-knell  of  the 
Huguenots.  Soon  Papal  indignation  was  to  be  allayed 
because  there  were  no  more  victims  for  slaughter  ;  the 
inquisition  to  rest  in  its  work  of  blood,  for  there  were  no 
more  armies  of  the  True  Faith  to  conquer.  ' '  Great  was 
the  rejoicing  of  the  Jesuits  on  the  revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  Rome  sprang  up  with  a  shout  of  joy  to  cele- 
brate the  event.  Te  Deums  were  sung,  processions  went 
from  shrine  to  shrine,  and  the  Pope  sent  a  brief  to  Louis, 
conveying  to  him  the  congratulations  and  praises  of  the 
Romish  Church.  Pul)lic  thanksgivings  were  held  at  Paris,  in 
which  the  people  eagerly  took  part,  thus  making  themselves 
accomplices  in  the  proscription  by  the  King  of  their  fellow- 
subjects.     The  provost  and  sheriffs  had  a  statute  of   Louis 


122  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

erected  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  bearing  the  inscription,  'Liidii- 
vico  Magno,  victori  perpetrio,  ecclesia  ac  regum,  dignitatis 
assertori. '  Leseuer  was  employed  to  paint  the  subject  for 
the  gallery  at  Versailles,  and  medals  were  struck  commem- 
orating the  extinction  of  Protestantism  in  France. ' ' 

The  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  gave  license  to 
every  kind  of  violence  against  the  Huguenots,  and  every- 
thing- that  belonged  to  them.  Protestant  worship  was 
everywhere  proscribed,  both  in  public  and  in  private  ;  the 
churches  were  broken  down  ;  pastors  were  banished  ;  schools 
closed ;  parents  were  forbidden  to  teach  their  children  ; 
personal  property  was  confiscated ;  Protestant  children 
must  be  baptized  by  a  parish  priest,  a  heavy  penalty  being 
inflicted  in  case  of  disobedience  ;  and  the  galley  and  prisons 
filled  with  thousands  who  preferred  suffering  to  the  surrender 
of  their  faith. 

It  seems  almost  incredible,  the  vast  numbers  of  French- 
men that  fled  from  their  native  country  to  escape  these 
various  persecutions.  The  highways  were  crowded  with 
refugees.  From  every  outlet  on  the  north  and  the  east  they 
poured  in  an  incessant  throng.  Prohibitions  against  self- 
banishment  were  issued ;  officers  patrolled  the  high  roads 
night  and  day  ;  heavy  penalties  were  inflicted  on  those  caught 
in  the  act  of  emigrating,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  The  fre- 
quented routes  were  avoided,  and  the  fugitives  crossed  the 
frontier  through  dense  forests,  over  mountain  by-paths, 
along  trackless  wastes,  traveling  in  small  parties  and  by 
night.  "Women  of  quality,  even  sixty  and  seventy  years 
of  age,  who  had,  so  to  speak,  never  i^laced  a  foot  upon  the 
ground,  except  to  cross  their  apartments  or  stroll  in  an  ave- 
nue, traveled  to  some  village  which  had  been  indicated  by  a 
guide.  Girls  of  fifteen,  of  every  rank,  exposed  themselves 
to  the  same  hazard.  They  drew  wheelbarrows,  they  bore 
manure,  panniers  and  other  burdens.  They  disfigured  their 
faces  with  dyes  to  embrown  their  complexion,  with  oint- 
ments or  juices  that  blistered  their  skins  and  gave  them  a 
wrinkled  aspect.  Women  and  girls  were  seen  to  counter- 
feit sickness,  dumbness,  and  even  insanity.  Some  went 
disguised  as  men  ;  and   some,  too  delicate  to  pass  as  grown 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    123 

men,  donned  the  di'ess  of  lackeys,  and  followel  on  foot 
through  the  mud  a  guide  on  horseback,  who  assumed  the 
character  of  a  man  of  importance.  Many  of  these  females 
reached  Rotterdam  in  their  borrowed  garments,  and,  hasten- 
ing to  the  foot  of  the  pulpit  before  they  had  time  to  assume 
a  more  decent  garb,  published  their  repentance  of  their 
compulsory  signature. ' ' 

In  all  subsequent  persecutions,  as  in  that  of  the  days 
of  Marot  and  Beza,  the  wrath  of  the  Roman  clergy  and 
their  followers  was  exercised  against  the  Psalmody  of  the 
Huguenots.  The  severest  restrictions  were  placed  upon  its 
exercise,  and  many  are  the  incidents  that  might  be  related  of 
the  courage  of  the  Protestants  in  clinging  to  their  favorite 
act  of  devotion,  and  the  sufferings  consequent  thereto. 
Psalm-singing  was  forbidden  in  the  private  dwellings  and  in 
the  workshops  of  the  Protestants,  and  spies  selected  to  de- 
tect them  in  its  exercise.  A  common  act  of  devastation 
with  the  Catholics  was  to  enter  churches,  gather  the  Psalm- 
books  and  Bibles  into  a  pile  and  burn  them.  An  edict  was 
issued  in  France  as  late  as  April  25,  1727,  in  which  the 
Protestants  were  required  to  surrender  all  their  religious 
books  within  fifteen  days  that  they  might  be  burned  in  the 
presence  of  the  commandants  of  the  respective  districts,  the 
penalty  for  withholding  being  three  years'  banishment  and 
a  fine  of  not  less  than  one-third  of  the  entire  personal  prop- 
erty of  the  offender.  Fearless,  amid  the  terrors  of  perse- 
cution, was  a  Huguenot  pastor  who  published  a  defense  of 
the  prohibited  Psalm-singing,  and  for  it  was  arrested  and 
driven  from  the  country.  There  is  recorded  the  noble  ex- 
ample of  an  artisan  of  Lanquedoc,  who  persisted  in  his  sing- 
ing of  Psalms  notwithstanding  the  royal  prohibition  ;  and, 
when  the  ofiicer  presented  him  with  the  edict,  took  it  and 
wrote  on  it  the  following  words  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Psalm: 

"  Jamais  ne  cessarai 

De  magnifier  le  seigneur 
En  ma  bouche  auri  son  lionneur 
Faut  que  vivant  serai," 

Which  in  the  English  prose  version  read,    "  I  will  bless  the 

Lord   at  all  times,   his  praise   shall  continually  be  in   my 

mouth." 


124  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

One  Migaiilt,  a  schoolmaster,  for  teaching  the  Psalms 
to  his  pupils,  came  near  losing  his  life,  having  saved  it  only 
by  hasty  flight. 

The  massacre  at  Vassy,  in  May  of  1563,  was  ordered  by 
the  Duke  of  Guise,  because,  as  he  said,  when  he  commanded 
the  congregation  to  cease  its  Psalmody,  they  defied  him  and 
only  sang  the  louder.  The  following  account  of  this  massacre 
is  given  by  Smiles,  in  the  History  of  the  Huguenots:  "On  the 
1st  of  May,  1598,  they  held  one  of  their  meetings,  at  which 
about  twelve  hundred  persons  were  present,  in  a  large  barn, 
which  served  as  a  church.  The  day  before  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  accompanied  by  the  duchess,  his  wife,  the  cardinal  of 
Guise,  and  about  two  hundred  men,  armed  with  arquebuses 
and  poinards,  set  out  for  Vassy.  They  rested  during  the 
night  at  Dampmarten  and  next  morning  marched  direct  upon 
the  cono-regation  assemljled  in  the  barn.  The  minister,  Mo- 
rel,  had  only  begun  his  opening  prayer  when  two  shots  were 
fired  at  the  persons  on  the  platform.  The  congregation  tried 
in  vain  to  shut  the  doors;  the  followers  of  the  Duke  of  Guise 
burst  in,  and  precipitated  themselves  on  the  unarmed  men, 
women  and  children.  For  an  hour  they  tired,  hacked  and 
stabbed  among  them,  the  duke  coolly  watching  the  carnage. 
Sixty  persons,  of  both  sexes,  were  left  dead  on  the  spot, 
more  than  two  hundred  were  severely  wounded,  and  the  rest 
contrived  to  escape.  After  the  massacre,  the  duke  sent  to 
the  local  judge,  and  severely  reprimanded  him  for  having 
permitted  the  tluguenots  of  Vassy  thus  to  meet.  The 
judge  entrenched  himself  behind  the  edict  of  the  king. 
The  duke's  eyes  flashed  with  rage,  and,  striking  the  hilt 
of  his  sword  with  his  hand,  he  said,  "  The  sharp  edge  of 
this  will  soon  cut  your  edict  in  pieces."  So  severe  were  the 
restrictions  upon  the  Huguenots  that  they  were  not  even  al- 
lowed to  go  to  the  grave  in  peace.  Many  of  the  dead  bodies, 
because  not  permitted  a  decent  burial  by  the  friends  of  the 
deceased  Protestants,  were  removed  from  the  dwellings  by 
the  hangman  and  cast  into  the  public  sewers. 

Among  those  subjected  to  this  brutal  indignity  was  the 
body  of  the  distinguished  M.  de  Chenevix.  He  had  been 
celebrated  for  his  learning  and  piety,  and  enjoyed  for  a  time 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    125 

the  position  of  Councillor  to  the  King  of  Metz.  During  his 
illness  in  1686,  the  Catholic  curate  of  the  parish  forced 
himself  into  the  presence  of  the  sufferer,  demanded  his  re- 
cantation, and  ordered  him  to  communicate.  He  positively 
refused  to  confess  his  sins  to  any  but  God,  and  declined  to 
communicate  after  the  popish  manner.  At  his  death  his 
body  was  removed  by  the  executioner,  placed  on  a  hurdle, 
dragged  off  and  cast  upon  a  dunghill.  During  the  night 
about  four  hundred  of  his  friends,  mostly  women,  proceeded 
to  the  spot  where  the  body  lay  and  secured  it  for  a  Christian 
l^urial.  Wrapjiing  the  body  in  linen,  four  men  bore  it  aloft 
on  their  shoulders  and  placed  it  in  a  grave  digged  in  a  gar- 
den. While  the  body  was  being  lowered  to  its  resting  place 
the  mourning  assembly  joined  in  singing  the  Seventy-ninth 
Psalm,  "Save  me,  O  God,  for  the  waters  are  come  into  my 
soul,"  etc.  From  this  circumstance  it  would  seem  that  the 
custom  of  Psalm-sino;ing  at  funerals  existed  among:  the 
French  Christians,  as  among  those  of  the  early  ages  of  the 
New  Testament  Church. 

The  Psalms  were  the  constant  companions  of  the  wan- 
dering Huguenots,  and  often  solaced  them  in  their  galley 
sufferings,  and  consoled  them  as  they  were  led  to  the  scaffold 
or  the  stocks.  Editions  of  the  French  metrical  Psalms  were 
published  in  the  form  of  small  primers,  and  thousands  of 
them  carried  concealed  about  the  persons  of  the  Huguenots, 
ready  for  use  when  a  convenient  opportunity  was  presented. 

M.   Fulcrand  and  M,  Pochette,    distinguished  pastors 

amonof  the  reformed,  were  carried  together  to  their  execu- 

tion,  where  they  sang  from  the  One  hundred  and  eighteenth 

Psalm, 

"  This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made, 
We  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it,"  etc. 

When  the  Huguenots  were  not  allowed  to  assemble  in 
their  accustomed  places  of  worship,  they  met  secretly  by 
night  in  caves,  among  thick  forests,  in  some  lone  place  hy 
the  sea  shore,  or  sheltered  by  the  rocks  of  neighboring 
mountains.  In  the  desert  were  regular  gatherings  of  wor- 
shipers which  were  known  as  the  "Churches  of  the  Desert." 
These  churches  were  organized,  had  their  pastors,  elders  and 


126  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

deacons,  and  met  and  adjourned  at  stated  hours.  The  meet- 
ings were  held  during  the  night,  and  so  closely  were  they 
concealed  that  it  was  only  by  the  most  rigid  search  that  they 
were  ever  discovered.  Here  in  their  nio^ht  gatherino^,  the\' 
sang  the  Psalms  of  Marot.  As  the  hour  for  beginning  the 
services  would  draw  nigh,  the  pastor  would  sometimes  send 
out  companies,  who  were  ordered  to  sing  a  Psalm  to  direct 
any  of  the  worshipers  who  might  be  delayed  and  in  danger  of 
becoming  lost  in  the  darkness.     It  was  from  the  singing  of 

these  guides  that  the  rendezvous  of  the  Iluo-uenots  was  fre- 
es o 

quently  discovered.  These  churches  of  the  desert  continued 
in  existence  down  to  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution, 
when  Protestantism  w^as  again  publicly  tolerated  in  France. 
Among  those  who  gathered  in  the  Desert  for  worship 
and  were  celebrated  in  the  wars  with  the  Romish  forces, 
were  the  Camisards,  so  called  from  the  character  of  their 
dress.  This  liand  owed  its  organization  to  Jean  Cavalier,  a 
native  of  Lauquedoc,  and  born  near  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  Camisards  were  poor  Protestants,  who 
had  been  goaded  to  desperation  by  the  cruelty  of  their  per- 
secutions ;  but  who,  although  ignorant  of  the  art  of  war, 
were  so  gallant  and  determined  that  they  carried  on  a  suc- 
cessful struggle  against  the  arms  of  France  for  almost  five 
years.  They  were  without  money,  but  received  supplies  of 
food  and  clothing  from  the  peasants  and  from  the  spoils  of 
victory.  Their  bullets  were  generally  moulded  from  the 
church  bells  that  had  formerly  summoned  them  on  their 
peaceful  Sabbaths  to  the  Lord's  house.  It  was  an  invariable 
custom  with  them  to  engage  in  prayer  and  Psalmody,  both 
when  pitching  their  camps  and  when  beginning  their  march. 
If  they  were  successful  in  their  onslaughts,  they  held  re- 
ligious exercise  for  the  benefit  of  the  peasants  who  would 
flock  in  crowds  to  their  rendezvous.  The  determination  and 
success  of  these  religious  soldiers  only  prepared  the  way  for 
greater  cruelty.  An  enemy,  whose  rage  is  excited  by  the 
exercise  of  the  liberty  of  conscience  in  religion,  is  incapable 
of  admiring  the  valor  of  a  foe,  and  so,  only  devises 
severer  tortures  for  those  resisting.  Whole  villages  of 
those  in  sympathy  with  Cavalier  and  his  band  were  burned 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    127 

to  the  trround.  The  stake  and  the  o-ibbet  streamed  with  the 
blood  of  captives  all  over  Lanquedoc,  while  many  a  strag- 
gler from  his  company  was  shot  like  a  beast  and  his  body 
trampled  in  the  dust.  The  Battle  Hymn  of  these  sturdy 
warriors  was  the  Sixty-eighth  Psalm,  which  they  usually 
sang  with  one  knee  on  the  ground,  and  when  the  enemy  was 
maldns:  the  first  onset.     Their  Psalm  began  : 

"  Que  Dieu  se  montre  seulenient, 
Et  I'on  verra  dans  le  moment 
Abandonner  la  place 

Le  camp  des  enuemis  epars, 
Epouvante  de  toutes  parts, 
Fuera  devant  sa  face."  * 

At  the  battle  of  Valde  Bane,  Jan.  12,  1703,  a  com- 
pany of  only  two  hundred  Camisards  was  attacked  by  the 
Papal  soldiers  under  Count  de  Broglie.  But  the  smallness 
of  their  numbers,  and  ' '  the  approach  of  his  troops  did  not 
move  the  resolute  band,  who  continued  sing-inor  a  Psalm 
(the  Sixty-eighth)  with  one  knee  on  the  ground  until  they 
had  received  the  first  volley.  ■ ' 

On  another  occasion,  in  the  diocese  of  Uzes,  when  La 
Jonquiere  supposed  he  had  annihilated  a  company  of 
Camisards,  and  so  ordered  his  men  to  charge  with  the 
bayonet,  he  was  astonished  to  see  them  jump  from  the 
ground  and  rush  to  the  attack,  singing  their  favorite  Psalm. 

An  anonymous  writer  says  the  papal  troops  were  often 
paralyzed  by  the  religious  fervor  of  the  Camisards.  He 
mentions  a  conversation  Avith  an  officer  who  declared  he 
could  not  keep  his  men  under  control  when  they  heard  the 
music  of  the 

"  Que  Dieu  se  montre  seulenient,"  etc. 

A  scene  at  the  closing  of  the  Camisard  war  has  been 
thus  described:  "When  D'Aygaliers  and  Cavalier  were  in 
conference  with    reference   to    peace,   the  divisions   of  the 

*  "  Que  Dieu  se  montre  seuement, 

Et  onverra  fondainement 
Abandoner  la  place: 

I^  cap  des  ennemis  epars, 
Et  fes  haineux  de  toutes  parts, 

Fuer  devant  fa  face." 

The  above  is  quoted  from  Marot  and  Beze  edition,  1684. — J.  C.  B. 


128  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

opposing  forces  mingled,  embraced  each  other  and  united  in 
singing  Psalms.  When  the  Camisards  in  Nismis  heard  that 
the  struggles  were  over  and  that  they  were  to  be  left  to  the 
free  exercise  of  their  consciences  in  worship,  the  town  re- 
sounded with  the  accents  of  praise  and  thanksgiving. 
Psalms  were  heard  in  the  streets  and  pul)lic  places.  The 
Bishop  of  Nismis  thus  alludes  to  the  spectacle  :  ' '  We  have 
seen  Cavalier  at  our  gates  ;  his  interviev,^  with  the  Marshall 
and  M.  de  Basville  ;  his  submission  and  his  pride  ;  the  bold- 
ness of  Scelerets,  who  accompanied  him  ;  the  concourse  of 
new  converts  who  go  to  see  them  ;  the  Psalms  they  chant 
and  with  which  the  Vauna.ge  resounds,  all  this  greatly 
scandalizes  and  afflicts  the  Catholics. ' '  On  this  same  oc- 
casion, the  Catholics  became  so  worried  with  the  endless 
singing  of  the  Psalms,  that  they  threatened,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  soldiers,  they  would  cast  the  Huguenots  into  the 
Phone. 

Thouo^h  the  Psalms  in  1553  were  attached  to  the  cate- 
chism  of  Geneva,  and  thus  became  formally  a  part  of  the 
Order  of  the  Reformed  Church,  yet  there  is  little  mention 
made  of  Psalms  and  Psalmody  in  the  records  of  the  synods. 
Enouo'h,  however,  remains  to  convince  us  that  Psalm-sino:- 
ing  was  not  a  mere  accident,  but  was  regarded  as  an  essential 
part  of  religious  devotion. 

From  the  Synodicon  of  John  Quick,  published  in  Lon- 
don in  1692,  we  iind  the  acts  of  the  several  French  Synods. 
In  the  second  canon,  chapter  X  of  the  Discipline,  enacted 
in  the  National  Synod  at  Paris,  1559,  there  is  the  following 
direction  :  "  Singing  of  God's  praise  being  a  divine  ordi- 
nance to  be  performed  in  the  congregation  of  the  faithful 
and  for  that  by  the  use  of  the  Psalms  their  hearts  be  com- 
forted and  strengthened,  everyone  shall  be  advertised  to 
bring  with  them  their  Psalm-books  into  the  assemblies  ;  and 
such  as  through  contempt  of  this  holy  ordinance  do  forbear 
the  having  them,  shall  be  censured,  as  also  those  who,  in 
time  of  singing,  both  before  and  after  sermon,  are  not  un- 
covered, as  also  when  the  holy  sacraments  are  celebrated." 

Previous  to  1579  the  practice  of  "lining  out  the 
Psalms,"  as  was  generally   customary  in  Scotland,  seems  to 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.   129 

have  been  introduced  into  the  French  churches.  This  not 
meeting  with  the  favor  of  the  ministry  generally,  an  act 
forbidding  it  was  passed  in  the  Tenth  Synod,  held  at  Figeae 
in  1579 — "  Churches  that  in  singing  Psalms  do  first  cause 
each  verse  to  be  read,  shall  be  advised  to  forbear  that  child- 
ish custom,  and  such  as  have  used  themselves  to  it  shall  be 
censured."  Twelve  years  later  the  act  requiring  Psalm- 
books  in  church  was  re-enacted.  It  is  in  the  records  of 
the  Eleventh  Synod  that  met  at  Vitre  :  ' '  Forasmuch 
as  there  is  a  notorious  contempt  of  religion  visible  in  all 
places,  yea  also  in  our  religious  meetings,  we  advise  that 
notice  be  given  unto  all  persons  to  bring  with  them  Psalm- 
books  into  the  churches,  and  that  such  as  contemptuously 
neglect  the  doing  of  it  shall  be  severely  censured  ;  and  all 
Protestant  printers  are  advised  not  to  sunder  in  their  im- 
pressions the  prayers  and  catechism  from  the  Psalm-books. ' ' 
At  length  the  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza  came  to  be 
regarded  as  obsolete  and  barbarous.  Voltaire  said  of  them 
that  as  taste  improved  they  inspired  disgust,  and  that  which 
in  the  reign  of  Francis  1.  charmed  the  court,  seemed  only 
suited  to  please  the  populace  under  Louis.  Geneva,  the 
first  to  adopt  these  Psalms,  was  the  first  to  abandon  them. 
The  revision  of  them  was  begun  by  M.  Conrart,  and  com- 
pleted by  M.  da  la  Bastide.  This  revision  was  presented  to 
the  pastors  and  professors  of  the  church  at  Geneva,  who  re- 
ported favorably  on  it,  and,  in  1695,  published  it.  In  a 
short  time  they  abolished  the  use  of  the  old  and  adopted  the 
new  version  in  the  Genevan  church,  and  issued  circular  let- 
ters to  the  other  churches  requesting  them  to  do  the  same. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  contemptuous  reflection  of  Vol- 
taire, the  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza  remained  dear  to  the 
people,  and  to  them  the  new  version  seemed  to  lack  all 
charms.  Because  of  the  love  of  the  people  for  the  old 
Psalms,  the  new  ones  retained  the  same  number  of  stanzas, 
possessed  the  same  quantity  of  syllables  in  the  verses  as 
in  the  old,  and  w^ere  adapted  to  the  old-fashioned  tunes, 
many  of  which  are  used  to  this  day  in  France  and  Switzer- 
land. Yet,  with  all  this,  the  new  version  was  for  many 
years  used  by  no  churches  except  those  in  Geneva,  Hesse- 


130  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Cassel  and  Nenfchatel.  As  late  as  the  year  1700  a  synod  of 
the  Walloon  district,  assembled  at  Rotterdam,  resolved  to 
retain  the  old  version,  providing  only  for  a  few  changes  in 
some  exceptionable  words.  One,  writing  at  the  time  of  the 
proposition  to  have  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms,  says  : 
' '  We  may  say  of  the  poems  of  Marot  and  Beza  what  Quin- 
tilian  said  of  Ennius — '  let  us  reverence  the  verses  of  En- 
nius  as  we  reverence  the  groves  that  are  venerable  for  their 
great  age,  and  whose  old  and  lopped  oaks,  though  they 
have  little  beauty,  yet  strike  us  with  religious  awe.'  " 

The  French  and  Swiss  churches  of  the  present  day  use 
almost  exclusively  human  composition  in  their  praise.  The 
Psalms  of  Marot  are  still  sung,  but  chiefly  in  those  dis- 
tricts where  dwell  the  descendents  of  the  Piedmont 
Christians. 

In  my  possession  is  a  Liturgy  in  the  French,  with  the 
Psalms  in  French  metre,  as  they  are  still  sung  in  some 
places  on  the  continent.  The  Psalms  in  this  version  are 
printed  with  the  music  to  which  they  were  to  be  sung,  the 
words  coming  immediately  under  their  proper  notes.  In 
this  version  also  are  some  of  the  old  Psalms  that  were  sung; 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  longer  Psalms  are  divided  by 
pauses  after  the  ancient  method,  for  resting  the  voice.  At 
the  end  of  the  Psalms  are  ' '  Sacred  Canticles ' '  from  the 
Scriptures,  rendered  in  rhyme,  and  set  to  the  same  music  to 
which  the  Psalms  were  sung.  From  Switzerland  and  France, 
by  missionaries  and  by  the  refugees,  the  French  Psalms 
were  carried  into  many  different  parts.  As  early  as  1555 
the  Genevan  church  sent  two  missionaries  and  fourteen 
students  to  Coligny's  Colony  in  Rio  Janeiro.  Thus,  at  least 
sixty  years  before  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth 
Rock,  and  fifty  before  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was 
borne  to  the  banks  of  the  James  River,  the  Psalms  of 
Marot  and  Beza  were  being  sung  by  the  missionaries  sent  to 
the  Spanish  possessions  of  the  far  AVest. 

From  France  the  refa^ees  carried  their  forms  of 
worship  and  their  Psalms  into  the  Netherlands  and  adjoining 
countries  ;  to  England,  Ireland,  America,  where  they  estab- 
lished churches  and  worshiped  in  their   own   language  and 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.    131 

after  their  own  method.  In  Great  Britain  the  refuffees  were 
so  numerous  that  a  o-reat  number  of  churches  were  oro-an- 
ized,  where  their  pastors  on  the  anniversaries  of  their 
exile  would  preach  to  sorrowing  assemblies  from  the  words, 
' '  By  the  rivers  of  Baliylon,  there  we  sat  down,  yea,  we 
wept  when  we  remembered  Zion."  Owing  to  the  gradual 
conformity  of  the  descendents  of  these  exiles  to  customs 
and  language  of  their  adopted  country,  the  Huguenots 
diminished  rapidly  in  influence  and  numbers.  In  Ireland,  a 
French  conOTeofation  was  oro^anized  at  Portarlin^ton,  which 
existed  still  in  this  present  century.  The  last  pastor  was 
Charles  de  Vignolles,  and  the  French  language  and  French 
Psalms  were  employed  in  worship  till  1817,  after  which 
time  it  was  discontinued,  the  French  language  being  an  un- 
known tongue  in  the  neighborhood.  Several  Huguenot 
families,  led  by  the  nephew  of  Admiral  Duquesne,  emigrated 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  while  others  removed  as  far 
from  France  as  Surinam  in  Dutch  Guiana. 

According  to  Weiss  there  are  now  in  the  Cape  Colony 
about  four  thousand  descendents  of  the  Huguenot  exiles, 
residing  in  what  is  known  as  the  French  Valley.  In  1739, 
the  Dutch  government  proscribed  the  use  of  their  native 
tongue,  and  their  language  is  now  the  Dutch.  "On  each 
parlor  table  is  one  of  those  great  folio  Bibles  which  the 
French  Protestants  were  wont  to  hand  down  from  father  to 
son,  and  in  which  the  dates  of  the  births  and  the  names  of 
all  the  members  of  the  family  are  invariably  inscribed, 
Clement  Marot's  Psalms  and  religious  books  are  often  found 
among  them.  Night  and  morning  the  members  of  each 
family  assemble  for  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Bible. 
Every  Sunday  at  sunrise  the  farmers  set  out  in  their  rustic 
vehicles,  covered  with  hides  or  Avith  coarse  cloth,  to  attend 
divine  service,  and  at  night  they  return  to  their  peaceful 
homes.  The  news  of  the  ^vorld  takes  a  long  time  to  reach 
them.  In  1828,  when  evangelical  missionaries  told  them 
that  religious  toleration  had  existed  in  France  for  forty 
years,  the  old  men  shed  tears." 

Some  families  of  French  Protestants  settled  on  Long  Is- 
land Sound,  about  twenty-live  miles  from  New  York  City,  and 


132  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

called  their  settlement  New  Rochelle,  after  the  name  of  their 
stronghold  in  the  mother  country.  From  this  point  they, 
in  the  early  days  of  their  settlement,  would  come  to  New 
York  to  attend  divine  service.  The  journey  was  made  by 
the  men  on  foot,  and  by  the  women  and  children,  in  carts. 
Arriving  at  the  city  they  would  encamp  within  the  suburbs 
until  the  Sabbath  bell  would  summon  them  to  service  in  the 
old  church  du  Saint  Esprit.  Though  these  Huguenots  found 
a  safe  refuge  in  their  new  abode,  yet  "the  old  longing  for 
home  in  Allan  Cunningham's  ballad — 

'  It's  hame  and  it's  hame,  hame  fain  would  1  be, 
O  hame,  hame,  hame,  to  my  ain  countree,' 

clung  to  their  breasts  and  caused  singular  melancholy  in 
some  of  them.  One  old  man  who  went  every  day  down  to 
the  seashore  to  look  and  gaze  his  fill  towards  the  beautiful 
cruel  land  where  most  of  life  had  been  passed,  with  his  face 
toward  the  east,  and  his  eyes  strained,  as  if  by  force  of  long- 
ing looks  he  could  see  the  far-distant  France,  said  his  morn- 
ing prayers  and  sang  one  of  Clement  Marot's  hymns — there 
being  an  edition  of  the  Psalms  of  David  put  into  French 
Rhyme  (Pseaumes  de  David  misen  Rime  francoise,  par  Clem- 
ent Marot  et  Theodore  de  Beze)  published  in  as  small  a  form 
as  possible,  in  order  that  the  book  might  be  concealed  in 
their  bosoms,  if  the  Huguenots  were  surprised  in  their  wor- 
ship while  they  lived  in  France. ' ' 

A  colony  of  French  Huguenots  also  settled  in  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  where  they  kept  up  their  services  in 
French,  singing  the  old  Psalms  of  Marot  till  about  1840. 
Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  procuring  pastors  who  could 
preach  to  them  in  Fiench  they  were  compelled  to  secure  min- 
isters of  other  denominations,  which  soon  led  to  a  revolution 
of  their  liturgy  and  to  the  setting  aside  of  the  Psalms  of 
their  early  service.  In  the  early  history  of  the  Carolina  col- 
onies, we  find  the  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza  performing  the 
office  of  comforting  and  supporting  amid  the  horrors  of  Indian 
captivity,  as  they  had  often  done  under  the  persecutions  of 
the  French  Papists.  In  the  attack  on  Kingston  forty-five 
Huguenots  were  taken  captive,  one  of  them  being  Catharine 
Le  Fever,  wife  of   Louis    Dubois.     After   the  Indians  had 


"THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SWISS  AND  FRENCH  REFORMATION.   133 

selected  her  to  be  burned,  and  when  she  was  already  bound 
for  the  sacrifice  to  savage  hate,  she  consoled  herself  and 
strengthened  her  spirit  for  a  terrible  death  by  singing  one 
of  David's  Psalms.  So  highly  delighted  were  the  Indians 
with  her  singing  that  they  delayed  her  sufferings  and  by 
signs  urged  her  to  continue.  When  she  was  engaging  in  her 
song  the  remainder  of  the  captives  united  in  singing  the 
Psalm  of  the  Babylonish  Captivity.  The  indulgence  of  the 
savages,  for  the  sake  of  these  sacred  melodies,  proved  the 
safety  of  the  captives;  for  while  the  strains  of  the  Jewish 
lament  were  yet  rising  to  heaven  Dubois  and  his  followers 
.broke  into  the  Indian  camp  and  secured  their  rescue. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Psalms  in  the  Netherland  Reformation. 

Though  the  Low  Countries  were  the  home  of  man}' 
sects,  yet  the  Calvinists  were  the  most  numerous ;  and 
chiefly  gave  character  to  the  religion  of  the  land.  In  all  of 
the  Southern  provinces,  and  chiefly  in  Flanders,  the  Re- 
formed Church  triumphed  over  all  others,  being  supported 
by  the  Huguenots  of  France,  the  Genevan  Republic,  and  the 
Calvinistic  part  of  Germany.  The  principal  actors  amid 
the  exciting  scenes  of  the  Reformation  in  the  Netherlands 
were  the  Gueux,  or  Beggars,  so  called  from  the  Guesen 
penny  which  they  wore  about  their  necks,  being  a  gold  or 
silver  coin,  one  side  bearing  an  efiigy  of  the  King,  with  the 
inscription,  ' '  Trust  to  the  King, ' '  and  the  other  having  two 
hands  folded  together  and  holding  a  wallet  with  the  words, 
'  '■  As  far  as  the  Beggars  Scrip. ' '  This  penny  was  subse- 
quently worn  by  all  who  took  up  arms  against  the  King. 

The  Netherlands  were  favorably  situated  for  these  re- 
formers to  promote  their  cause  ;  and  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  the  King  and  the  cruelty  of  the  Inquisition,  their 
efforts  were  attended  with  overwhelming  success.  Booka 
and  tracts  were  scattered  from  many  a  press  in  England, 
France  and  at  Geneva,  while  many  a  refugee  preacher, 
trained  in  the  school  of  Geneva,  or  aroused  to  desperation 
by  the  persecutions  of  France,  awakened  the  masses  by  his 
earnest  and  persistent  appeals. 

At  first  the  meeting's  of  the  Protestants  were  held  in 
secret,  but  conscious  of  their  increased  and  rapidly  increas- 
ing strength,  they  boldly  proceeded  to  proclaim  their  pro- 
fession and  their  tenets  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  King  and  the  clergy  of  Rome.  The  cities 
either  being  refused  them,  or  being  regarded  as  too  danger- 
ous for  their  assembling,  these  fearless  Christians  took  to 
the  fields  and  groves,  thus  giving  rise  to  those  famous  con- 

(134) 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.        135 

venticles  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Led  by  some  converted 
priest  or  friar,  these  field  worshipers  began  their  operations 
in  western  Flanders.  Small  audiences  at  first  attended  the 
services,  but  they  rapidly  increased  until  the  whole  country 
was  in  a  furor,  and  thousands  of  the  inhabitants,  men, 
women  and  children,  resorted  to  the  rendezvous  of  the  Prot- 
estants. At  Ghent,  Aalst,  Tournay,  Valenciennes,  Ant- 
werp, were  gathered  assemblies  of  Calvinists  varying  from 
5,000  to  15,000.  Although  many  were  attracted  by  curios- 
ity, others  to  add  to  their  sport,  yet  the  great  majority  came 
with  consciousness  of  their  wrongs  and  hungering  for  the 
truths  of  God's  Word. 

These  field  meetings  spread  through  the  Walloon  prov- 
inces and  entered  the  Northern  Netherlands.  In  July,  1566, 
Peter  Gabriel,  an  apostate  monk,  and  a  man  of  singular 
eloquence,  opened  the  first  conventicle  in  Holland.  In  the 
environs  of  Amsterdam,  The  Hague,  Harlem,  at  Ypre^, 
Bruges,  all  over  the  Low  Countries,  other  converts  carried 
on  the  work,  until  the  whole  population  seemed  for  a  while 
to  have  no  other  emploj^ment  than  to  attend  the  religious  as- 
semblies. Many  of  the  Christians,  carried  away  with  their  zeal 
and  hatred  of  popery,  turned  iconoclasts,  and  images,  altars, 
pictures  and  many  splendid  churches  and  cathedrals  were 
ruined  by  their  hands. 

In  the  worship  of  the  Calvinistic  churches  of  the  Low 
Countries,  and  especially  in  the  field  meetings,  the  Psalms 
Avere  a  conspicuous  and  powerful  agenc}^  in  sustaining  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  people.  In  those  provinces  that  spoke  the 
French,  the  Psalms  of  Marot  in  the  original  dialect  were 
used,  and  translations  speedily  made  for  those  parts  that  used 
a  different  language.  Of  their  influence  Morton  thus  speaks 
in  his  History  of  Poetry:  "France  and  Germany  were 
infatuated  with  a  love  for  Psalm- singing  .  .  .  These 
energetic  hymns  of  Geneva,  under  the  conduct  of  the  Calvin- 
istic preachers,  excited  and  supported  a  variety  of  popular 
insurrections;  they  filled  the  most  flourishing  cities  of  the 
Low  Countries  with  sedition  and  tumult,  and  fomented  the 
fury  which  defaced  many  of  the  most  beautiful  and  vener- 
able churches  of  Flanders." 


136  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Motley  describes  the  first  field  assembly  in  Holland  in 
the  following  terms: 

' '  Thus  the  preaching  spread  through  the  Walloon 
provinces  to  the  north  of  the  Netherlands.  Towards  the 
end  of  July  (1566)  an  apostate  monk  of  singular  eloquence, 
Peter  Gabriel  by  name,  was  announced  to  preach  at  Over- 
een,  near  Harlem.  This  was  the  first  field  meeting  that  had 
taken  place  in  Holland.  The  people  were  wild  with  enthu- 
siasm ;  the  authorities  were  beside  themselves  with  appre- 
hension. People  from  the  country  flocked  into  the  town  by 
the  thousands.  The  other  cities  were  deserted.  Harlem 
was  filled  to  overflowing.  Multitudes  encamped  upon  the 
ground  the  night  before.  The  magistrates  ordered  the 
gates  to  be  kept  closed  in  the  morning  till  long  after  the 
usual  hour.  It  was  of  no  avail.  Bolts  and  bars  were  but 
small  impediments  to  enthusiasts  who  had  traveled  so  many 
miles  on  foot  or  horseback  to  listen  to  a  sermon.  They 
climbed  the  walls,  swam  the  moat,  and  thronged  the  place 
of  meeting  long  before  the  doors  had  been  opened.  When 
they  could  no  longer  be  kept  closed  without  conflict,  for 
which  the  magistrates  were  not  prepared,  the  whole  popu- 
lation poured  out  of  the  city  with  a  single  impulse.  Tens 
of  thousands  were  assembled  upon  the  field.  The  bulwarks 
were  erected  as  usual.  The  guards  were  posted.  The  con- 
gregation was  encamped  and  arranged  in  an  orderly  manner. 
The  women,  of  whom  there  were  many,  were  placed  next 
the  pulpit,  which,  upon  this  occasion,  was  formed  of  a 
couple  of  spears  thrust  into  the  earth,  sustaining  a  cross- 
piece  against  which  the  preacher  might  lean  his  back.  The 
services  commenced  with  the  singing  of  a  Psalm  by  the 
whole  vast  assemblage.  Clement  Marot's  Psalms,  recently 
translated  by  Dathenus,  were  then  new  and  popular.  The 
strains  of  the  monarch  minstrel,  chanted  thus  in  their 
homely  but  nervous  mother  tongue  by  a  multitude  who  had 
but  recently  learned  that  all  the  poetry  and  rapture  of  de- 
votion were  not  irrevocably  coffined  in  a  buried  language, 
or  immured  in  the  precincts  of  a  church,  had  never  pro- 
duced a  more  elevating  effect.  No  anthem  from  the  world- 
renowned  organ  in  that  ancient  city  ever  awakened  more 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.        137 

lofty  emotions  than  did  those  ten  thousand  human  voices, 
ringing  from  the  grassy  meadows,  in  that  favored  midsum- 
mer noon.  When  all  was  silent,  the  preacher  arose,  a  lit- 
tle, meagre  man,  who  looked  as  if  he  might  melt  away  be- 
neath the  blazing  sunshine  of  July  rather  than  hold  the 
multitude  enchanted  four  uninterrupted  hours  by  the  magic 
of  his  tongue." 

It  was  the  usual  custom  of  the  iconoclasts  to  proceed 
to  their  work  of  devastation  by  singing  some  Psalm  of  Ma- 
rot,  or  some  canticle  of  Geneva,  rendered  in  rhyme.  The 
author  just  quoted  from,  in  speaking  of  the  demolition  in 
the  convent  at  Marchiennes,  says:  "A  large  assemblage 
of  rioters,  growing  in  numbers  as  they  advanced,  swept 
over  the  province  of  Tournay  after  accomplishing  the  sack 
of  the  city  churches.  Armed  with  halbreds,  hammers  and 
pitchforks,  they  carried  on  the  war,  day  after  day,  against 
the  images.  At  the  convent  of  Marchiennes,  considered  by 
contemporaries  the  most  beautiful  abbey  in  all  the  Nether- 
lands, they  halted  to  sing  the  Ten  Commandments  in  Ma- 
rot's  verse.  Hardly  had  the  vast  chorus  finished  the  pre- 
cept against  graven  images, 

"  '  Tailler  nete  feras  imaige,' 
when  the  whole  mob  seemed  seized  with  sudden  madness. 
Without  waiting  to  complete  the  Psalm  they  fastened  upon 
the  company  of  marble  images,  as  if  they  possessed  sensi- 
bility to  feel  the  blows  inflicted.  In  an  hour  they  had  laid 
the  whole  in  ruins. ' ' 

Another  favorite  practice  of  the  Calvinists  was  to  ex- 
press their  welcome  at  the  approach  of  any  of  the  nobles  who 
had  joined  them,  by  singing  their  Psalms.  A  single  instance 
may  be  given — in  the  reception  of  the  Prince  of  Orleans  at 
Antwerp.  This  city  was  in  a  tumult  from  the  preaching 
and  singing  of  the  Protestants.  The  keys  of  the  city  had 
been  captured,  and  the  people  were  openly  escorting  their 
banished  pastors  back  to  their  places  of  worship  within  the 
walls.  At  the  request  of  the  magistrates  the  Prince  of  Or- 
ange, who  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  Gueux,  was  sent  by 
Margaret  of  Parma  to  quell  the  excitement.  The  description 
of  his  reception,  given  by  Prescott,    could   apply  to  many 


138  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

such  occurring  all  over  the  Netherlands  :  '  'As  he  drew  near 
Antwerp  the  people  flocked  out  by  thousands  to  welcome 
him.  It  would  seem  as  if  they  hailed  him  as  their  deliverer, 
and  every  window,  verandah  and  roof  was  crowded  with 
spectators  as  he  rode  through  the  gates  of  the  capital.  The 
people  ran  up  and  down  the  streets  singing  Psalms,  or  shout- 
ing 'Vivent  les  Gueux, '  while  they  thronged  round  the 
prince's  horse  in  so  dense  a  mass  that  it  was  scarcely  possible 
for  him  to  force  a  passage. " 

Outside  of  the  gatherings  in  the  fields,  and  the  image- 
breaking  of  the  iconoclasts,  the  history  of  Psalm-singing  is 
much  the  same  as  in  Germany  and  France.  Being  a  novelty, 
the  Psalms  became  a  great  favorite  with  the  people,  who 
sang  them  both  at  home  in  worship,  and  in  their  daily  toils 
in  field  and  workshop. 

A  singular  instance  of  superstition  connected  with  the 
Psalm-sinffinff  of  the  Calvinists  in  the  Low  Countries,  occur- 
red  at  Valenciennes  during  March  1567,  While  Egmont 
was  commanding  the  Protestant  fortifications,  the  chimes  all 
through  the  siege  played  the  music  of  Marot's  Psalms,  On 
the  fatal  morning  of  March  25th,  when  the  city  fell,  the 
chimes  happened  to  sound  forth  from  every  belfry  the  music 
set  to  the  Twenty-second  Psalm,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me, ' '  This  was  taken  by  the  Christians 
as  an  omen  for  evil,  and  so  filled  them  with  dismay  and  has- 
tened their  downfall. 

This  Egmont,  who  led  the  siege,  was  at  first  one  of  the 
most  barbarous  of  the  persecutors,  but  afterward  became  a 
confederate  of  Orange,  and  went  to  the  scaffold  June  5,  1568, 
reading  aloud  the  Fifty-first  Psalm,  "Have  mercy  upon  me, 
O  God,  according  to  thy  lovingkindness, ' '  etc. 

When  any  of  the  Calvinists  were  being  led  by  the  forces 
of  the  government  to  prison  or  to  death,  it  very  frequently 
happened  that  the  people  followed  them  singing  Psalms  and 
shouting  to  them  words  of  comfort;  and  it  was  not  an  infre- 
quent occurrence  for  both  persecuted  and  persecutors  to  be 
sinsing:  Psalms  around  the  same  scaffold,  the  one  in  the  Ian- 
guage  of  Marot,  and  the  others  their  Miserere  (Fifty-first 
Psalm)  chanted  in  the  prose. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.        139 

The  Netherlanders  engaged  in  their  Psalmody  at  times 
with  ofreat  risk  to  themselves.  The  Psalms  of  Marot  were 
prohibited  both  from  being  sung  and  imported.  In  1550 
an  edict  was  issued  against  even  the  possession  of  the  Psalms 
and  other  Calvinistic  publications,  the  penalty  being  "that 
such  perturbators  of  the  general  quiet  are  to  he  executed;  to 
wit,  the  men  with  the  sword,  and  the  women  to  be  buried 
alive  if  they  do  not  persist  in  their  errors;  if  they  do  persist 
in  them,  they  are  to  be  executed  with  fire."  "  Capons  or 
sausages  on  Good  Friday,  the  Psalms  of  Marot,  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  in  the  vernacular,  led  to  the  rack,  the  gibljet 
and  the  stake,  but  ushered  in  a  war  against  the  Inquisition 
which  lasted  for  eighty  years. " 

In  Antwerp  there  was  a  degree  of  toleration,  three  places 
in  the  city  being  assigned  the  Calvinists,  "where  they  might 
either  erect  new  churches,  or  convert  houses  for  that  pur- 
pose, with  the  restriction,  however,  that  no  preacher  shall 
assail  the  ruling  religion  from  the  pulpit,  and  no  Psalms 
should  be  sung  by  them  out  of  the  appointed  tlistricts." 

But  the  edicts  and  executions  did  not  stop  the  purchase 
and  singing  of  the  Psalms.  They  were  smuggled  into  the 
country  from  Geneva  and  France  in  bales  of  merchandise, 
and  sold  everywhere  by  pedlers  and  hawkers,  until  "The 
Psalms  of  Marot  were  as  current  as  the  drugs  of  Molucca 
or  the  diamonds  of  Borneo. ' ' 

The  accounts  of  the  versions  of  the  Psalms  and  of 
their  authors  are  very  meagre.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation  in  Holland,  "The  Protestants  first  sung  in 
their  families  and  private  assemblies  the  Psalms  of  the 
noble  Lord  of  Nievelte,  which  he  published  in  1540."  Of 
these  Psalms  nothing  more  could  be  gathered  than  that  they 
were  prepared  as  a  substitute  for  the  obscene  songs  with 
which  the  cities  of  Holland  resounded  and  by  which  the 
people  were  drawn  away.  Simon  Cock,  with  the  imperial 
license  granted  at  Brussels,  in  1539,  published  the  Psalms  in 
the  Flemish,  the  dialect  of  Flanders,  but  whether  or  not 
they  were  sung  is  not  known. 

About  the  year  1555  the  Psalms  were  rendered  in  the 
Low  Dutch  by  Peter  Uathen,   or  Dathenus.     His  version 


140  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

was  only  a  translation  of  the  French  Psalms  by  Marot  and 
Beza.  The  French  tunes  were  also  published  with  it,  and 
the  whole  accompanied  with  an  address  or  dedication  to  the 
Belgic  congregations  and  their  pastors  groaning  under  the 
cross.  Though  their  author  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
Hebrew,  yet  these  Psalms  were  highly  extolled,  because  at 
that  time  Dutch  poetry  was  very  little  cultivated,  and  came 
into  use  wherever  that  tongue  was  spoken. 

Near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Psalms  were 
turned  into  Dutch  rhyme  by  Philip  de  Marnix,  Lord  of 
Sainte  Aldegonde,  and  were  designed  to  pass  into  public  use 
in  the  place  of  the  version  of  Dathenus.  But,  though  a 
better  translation,  it  was  destined  to  fall  short  of  the  mark 
at  which  it  was  aimed.  From  Bajde  we  learn  that  ' '  a  good 
many  years  ago,  some  people  of  Holland  were  displeased 
with  these  loose  poetical  paraphrases,  which  varied  too  much 
from  the  text  of  Scripture,  especially  with  respect  to  the 
Psalms  of  Dathenus,  which  had  been  formed  upon  the 
French  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza.  Among  others,  Philip 
de  Marnix,  Lord  of  Mount  Sainte- Aldegonde,  employed 
himself  this  way,  and  composed  a  new  paraphrase  in  metre, 
exactly  agreeing  with  the  Psalms  of  Dathenus,  in  the 
stanzas,  lines,  and  syllables,  for  this  reason,  that  it  might  be 
sung  along  with  them  in  the  churches,  or  be  easily  substi- 
tuted in  their  room.  But  whereas  most  people  had  already 
got  the  Psalms  of  Dathenus  by  heart,  the  churches  did  not 
see  how  they  could  conveniently  and  without  giving  some 
offense  to  the  common  people  introduce  any  alteration  in 
the  public  worship." 

Melchor  Adams  observes  of  the  same  work  :  ' '  That 
work  had  been  printed  several  times,  but  was  not  yet  re- 
ceived by  the  common  approbation  of  the  ministers.  The 
reason  is  : 

Books  have  their  fate  succeeding  well  or  ill, 
Just  in  proportion  to  the  reader's  skill." 

About   the    beginning    of    the  seventeenth   century,  a 

paraphrase  of  the  Psalms  in  Dutch  rhyme  was  published  by 

Dirk  Rafael   Kamphuyzen.      His  paraphrase    of   the   One 

hundred  and  thirty-third  Psalm,   though  far  from  a  close 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.       141 

rendering  of  the  original,  is  a  most  beautiful  piece  of  com- 
position. Longfellow  saw  such  beauty  in  it  that  he  trans- 
lated it  into  English.     Two  verses  are  given  here  : 

If  there  be  one  whose  thoughts  delight  to  wander 
In  pleasure's  fields,  where  love's  bright  strains  meander  ; 
If  there  be  one  who  longs  to  find 
Where  all  the  purer  blisses  are  enshrined — 
A  happy  resting  place  of  virtuous  worth, 
A  blessed  paradise  on  earth  : 

Let  him  survey  the  joy  conferring  union 

Of  brothers  who  are  bound  in  fond  communion. 

And  not  by  force  of  blood  alone. 

But  by  their  mutual  sympathies  are  known, 

And  every  heart  and  every  mind  relies 

Upon  fraternal,  kindred  ties. 

In  Poland  the  Psalms,  modeled  after  those  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  France,  were  sung  among  the  Pinczovian 
Protestants,  a  class  that  had  received  their  name  from 
Pinckzow,  an  Italian,  and  a  minister  of  the  Reformed 
Church.  These  Psalms,  in  Polish  metre,  were  issued  about 
1563,  by  Bernard  Woiewodka,  of  Cracow,  who  had  been 
sent  by  Prince  Nicholas  Radzivil,  Palatine  of  Wilna,  and 
had  established  a  printing  press  at  Brest,  a  royal  city  of 
Lithuania. 

In  Hungary,  a  version  of  the  Psalms  was  prepared 
after  the  model  of  Marot's  Psalms,  and  accommodated  to 
the  airs  published  with  them.  It  was  printed  at  Hanau, 
1608,  and  was  bound  with  a  translation  of  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism,  and  the  Liturgy  of  the  Hungarian  churches. 

In  the  same  country,  the  Roman  Catholics  issued  a 
metrical  version  of  the  Psalms.  They  were  printed  at 
Debrecrin,  in  1723,  and  were  sung  in  the  service  of  the 
Papal  church. 

In  the  Wittemberg  library,  collected  in  the  last  century 
by  Charles,  Duke  of  Wittemberg,  are  poetical  versions  of 
the  Psalms  in  Spanish,  Portugese  and  Italian.  The  accounts 
of  the  authorship,  origin  and  use  of  these  versions  are 
probably  lost.  Yet  sufficient  remains  to  lead  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Psalms  in  metre  were  sung  in  all  these 
countries  by  those  who,  either  secretly  or  openly,  espoused 
the  faith  of  the  Reformation. 


Ii2  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Many  of  the  refugees,  who  fled  from  the  inquisition  of 
Spain  and  Italy,  settled  in  the  Grisons,  a  mountainous 
country  on  the  East  of  Switzerland,  where  they  met  with 
the  Swiss  forms  of  worship,  and  soon  conformed  to  them. 
The  lano^uao-e  of  the  Grisons  was  a  dialect  of  the  Romance 
or  Romanese.  Here  Biveroni,  a  native  of  Spain,  and  a 
Protestant  refugee,  versified  the  Psalms  in  the  Grisonian 
dialect  and  published  them  in  1505.  In  1606,  in  the  same 
tongue,  were  published  the  Psalms  and  Sacred  Hymns  by 
Chiampel. 

An  incident  in  the  history  of  Juan  Gonzaler,  a  de- 
scendant of  Moorish  parents,  shows  that  although  the 
supremacy  of  the  auto-de-fe  prevented  the  public  and  wide- 
spread singing  of  the  Psalms  in  Spain,  as  in  Germany, 
France  and  the  Low  Countries,  3^et  there  were  those  there 
who  sang  them  in  their  retreats  and  found  comfort  in  them 
when  led  to  the  stake.  This  Gonzaler  had  been  suspected  of 
sympathizing  with  Mohamedanism,  and  was  cast  into  prison. 
When  liberated  he  espoused  the  Protestant  cause  and 
preached  with  great  celebrity  in  Andalusia.  For  his  ofl^ense 
he  was  apprehended,  and  led  to  the  scaffold.  It  was  while 
going  to  his  death,  that,  "at  the  door  of  the  Triania,  he 
began  to  sing  the  One  hundred  and  ninth  Psalm. ' ' 

In  Germany,  the  melodies  to  which  the  Psalms  were 
sung  were  called  chorals  and  were  of  the  same  nature  with 
what  at  the  present  day  are  known  as  ' '  Psalm  tunes. ' ' 
These  new  melodies  were  studied  and  sung  especially  among 
the  Germans.  Musical  clubs  were  organized  in  Mayence, 
Colmar  and  Ulm,  which  shared  largely  in  the  events  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  When  priests  and  nobles  w^ere  vieing 
^vith  one  another  in  wickedness,  the  ' '  cobblers, ' '  who  could 
oppose  to  their  manifold  forms  of  vice  only  decent  lives 
and  a  virtuous  education,  were  diffusing  their  sentiments  and 
promoting  truth  by  their  sacred  songs  which  they  sung  to 
their  favorite  choral  melodies,  and  which  were  composed  in 
verses  so  rugged  and  uncouth,  that  "  Schustereim " — 
cobbler's  rhyme,  has  become  in  Germany  a  s^'nonym  for 
doo"gerel.     The  motive  in  their  organization  they  sang — 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.       143 

"  By  making  pious  hymns  we  strive 
Coarse  ballads  from  the  streets  to  drive, 
For  every  night  we  hear  with  shame 
Such  songs  as  we  refuse  to  name  ; 
To  silence  all  those  idle  lays 
We  meet  and  sing  our  Maker's  praise." 

Such  life  and  vigor  did  these  societies  of  shoemakers 
possess  that  the  one  at  Ulm  survived  almost  to  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

All  of  the  Reformers  were  patrons  of  sacred  music, 
and  most  of  them  were  skillful  performers,  both  with  the 
voice  and  on  various  instruments.  Luther  gained  much 
celebrity  for  his  musical  attainments. 

His  talent  for  music  very  early  in  life  aided  him  in 
gaining  a  livelihood,  and  in  middle  life  contributed  largely 
toward  his  comfort  and  success  in  the  mission  to  which  God 
had  called  him. 

It  was  said  of  the  Reformer,  while  involved  in  the 
midst  of  the  excitement  to  which  his  preaching  gave  rise, 
that  he  never  laid  aside  his  music,  but  frequently  resorted  to 
it  for  recreation  and  social  entertainment.  "  When  he  felt 
himself  fatigued  with  writing  or  perceived  his  head  becom- 
ing dizzy,  and  that  his  ideas  did  not  keep  pace  with  his  pen, 
he  took  his  flute  and  played  some  agreeable  air  on  it. ' ' 
Music  was  in  his  eyes  a  divine  revelation.  "  Music,"  said 
he,  "is  one  of  the  noblest  arts;  its  notes  give  life  to  the 
text;  it  charms  away  the  spirit  of  sadness,  as  is  seen  in  the 
case  of  Saul."  "Music  is  a  delightful,  noble  gift  of  God 
and  nearly  related  to  theology.  I  would  not  give  what  lit- 
tle skill  in  music  I  possess  for  something  great.  The  young 
are  continually  to  be  exercised  in  this  art;  it  makes  good  and 
skillful  people  of  them. ' ' 

It  was  a  frequent  custom  with  Luther  to  engage  in 
singing  sacred  songs  with  his  family  and  friends  after  meals, 
and  sometimes  he  would  invite  his  guests  to  form  a  choir 
and  unite  with  him  in  Psalmody. 

An  instance  of  the  power  of  music  upon  himself  oc- 
curi'ed  while  he  was  a  monk  at  Wittenberg.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  was  so  overwhelmed  with  trouble  because  of  his 
sins  that  he  shut  himself  up  in  his  cell  for  several  days  and 


144  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

nights — allowed  no  one  to  approach  him.  When  Edem- 
berger,  his  friend,  broke  open  the  door  he  found  Luther 
lying  insensible  on  the  floor  and  without  signs  of  life.  He 
strived,  but  in  vain,  to  arouse  him.  At  last  some  chorister 
boys,  whom  he  had  taken  with  him,  began  one  of  their 
sweet  melodies.  Their  clear  voices  acted  like  a  voice  from 
heaven,  and  the  prostrate  monk  returned  to  consciousness 
and  gradually  to  accustomed  strength. 

Luther  gained  celebrity  as  a  composer  of  music.  Sir 
John  Pringle,  in  a  letter  written  in  1769,  observed  that 
"the  late  Mr.  Handel,  that  celebrated  musician,  told  me 
that  Luther  had  even  composed  the  music  of  his  Psalms  and 
hymns,  and  which  was  so  excellent  that  he  borrowed  from 
it  and  inserted  whole  passages  in  his  oratorios. ' ' 

By  many  the  Psalm-tune  known  everywhere  as  "Old 
Hundred  "  is  supposed  to  have  been  composed  by  Luther, 
though  others  place  it  among  those  "most  favorite  songs  of 
the  times, ' '  or  those  ' '  ballad  airs  as  would  best  suit  the 
meter,"  which  were  sung  years  before  the  Reformation  to 
romances  and  licentious  songs.  Its  first  publication  was 
with  the  French  version  of  the  Psalms  in  1550  ;  in  1562  it 
appeared  in  England  set  to  the  One  hundredth  Psalm  of 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  At  first  it  appeared  in  but  one 
part,  but  was  afterward  frequently  composed  in  two,  three, 
four  and  even  five  parts. 

With  the  first  edition  of  his  Psalms  Luther  published 
'  *  appropriate  tunes. ' '  In  the  preface  to  this  he  enforces 
the  duty  of  church  Psalmody,  and  supports  the  duty  by  the 
examples  of  David  and  Paul.  "He  had  subjoined,"  he 
says,  ' '  suitable  tunes  to  show  that  the  fine  arts  had  by  no 
means  been  abolished  through  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel; 
but  that  in  particular  the  art  of  music  should  be  employed 
to  the  glory  of  God,  though  he  knew  this  sentiment  was 
contrary  to  the  romantic  ideas  of  some  teachers,  who  were 
disposed  to  allow  nothing  but  what  was  purely  intel- 
lectual." "They  are  arranged,"  he  added,  "for  four 
voices  for  no  other  reason  than  that  I  am  anxious  that 
young  people,  who  should  and  must  be  educated  in  music 
and  other  good  arts,  should  have  wherewith  to  get  rid  of 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHERLAND  REFORMATION.       145 

their  lascivious  antl  carnal  songs,  and  instead  of  them  learn 
something  salutary  and  receive  that  good  with  pleasure 
which  to  youth  is  meet. ' ' 

In  preparing  the  music  for  his  Psalm  book  Luther  con- 
sulted Conrad  Rupff,  conductor  of  the  choir  at  the  Elector's 
chapel,  with  reference  to  the  proper  character  of  choral 
music,  the  scale,  &c.,  "after  which  he  finally  arranged  the 
choral  notes  himself,  selecting  the  octaves  for  the  Epistles 
and  the  sixths  for  the  Gospel  and  saying:  'Christ  is  a  kind 
master  and  his  words  are  sweet,  wherefore  we  will  adopt 
aextum  tonuiii  for  the  Gospels;  and  because  St.  Paul  is  a 
serious  apostle,  therefore  we  will  ordain  octavum  tonum  for 
his  Epistles. '  " 

These  ' '  appropriate  tunes  ' '  of  Luther,  as  well  as  his 
Psalms  and  hymns,  were  speedily  taken  up  and  carried  over 
the  whole  nation  by  traveling  musicians,  singing  processions 
of  school  boys  and  city  cornetters. 

AVithin  a  century  from  the  days  of  Luther  sacred  music 
in  Germany  had  sadly  declined  from  the  simple,  but  effective, 
chorals  of  the  people.  The  new  Italian  school  had  exerted 
its  influence,  until  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
as  one  of  Germany's  best  historians  has  expressed  it,  "the 
modern  style  gained  a  decided  preponderance  over  the  anti(|ue 
method.  Musical  declamation  and  expression  suited  to  the 
words  prevail;  rhythmical  irregularities  and  the  old  churchly 
tunes  disappear  before  a  regular  measure  and  modern  softer 
tunes,  so  that  Psalmody  becomes  wholly  alienated  from  its- 
original  vital  element,  as  popular  singing  religious  concert 
music,  which  contained  no  reminiscent  traces  even  of  the  old 
church  melodies,  and  despised  the  form  of  hymns  and 
strophes,  was  more  constantly  cultivated.  The  congrega- 
tion wholly  ceased  to  take  part  in  the  singing. ' '  The  same 
author  says  of  the  sacred  music  of  the  following  century, 
that  it  sank  "with  the  hymns  of  this  period  to  the  low- 
est degree  of  its  existence.  The  old  chorals  were  re-cast 
into  modern  forms,  by  which  they  altogether  lost  their  an- 
cient power  and  beauty.  A  multitude  of  new,  unnational 
and  difiicult  melodies,  in  a  dry,  pedantic  style,  appeared; 
the  last  trace  of  the  old  rhymth  disappeared,  and  tedious, 


146 


DAVID  S  HAKP  IN  SONG  AND   STORY. 


heavy  monotony  gained  the  ascendency,  by  which  all  sub- 
limity and  freshness  were  lost.  Preludes  and  interludes  of 
a  secular  character  were  introduced  as  substitutes.  An 
operatic  overture  generally  introduced  the  people  into  the 
church;  a  march  or  a  waltz  dismissed  them  from  it.  The 
Church  ceased  to  foster  and  to  produce  music;  the  theatre 
and  concert  hall  took  its  place." 

Notwithstanding  this,  Germany  did  not  lose  a  taste  for 
music;  she  has  justly  acquired  for  herself  the  enviable  noto- 
riety of  a  nation  of  musicians.  At  the  present  day  the  cul- 
ture of  this  fine  art  is  carried  to  the  highest  state,  and  may 
be  found  in  the  curriculum  of  studies  even  in  the  insionificant 
charity  schools.  Capability  to  teach  the  knowledge  of  music, 
both  vocal  and  instrumental,  is  an  absolute  prerequisite  of  a 
schoolmaster.  Hence  it  is  we  always  find  the  rudely-clad 
and  apparently  desolate  German  immigrant,  carrying  his 
instrument,  and  charged  with  some  favorite  national  airs. 

In  France,  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  sacred 
music  assumed  the  most  fantastic  forms.  Dances,  jigs,  op- 
eras and  merry  tunes  were  set  to  the  Psalms  of  Marot,  while 
new  airs  were  composed  ' '  by  excellent  composers,  that 
chimed  so  sweetly  that  every  one  desired  a  new  Psalter. ' ' 
The  first  edition  of  Marot 's  Psalms  was  published  in  Paris 
without  any  melodies;  hence  the  populace,  who  had  been 
singing  his  ballads  and  roundelays,  were  compelled  to  take 
"secular  tunes  such  as  were  easy  to  play  on  the  violin  and 
other  instruments. ' ' 

The  Queen  sang  "Rebuke  me  not  in  thine  indignation" 
to  the  air  of  a  fashionable  jig;  Antony  chose  for  "Revenge 
my  quarrel, "  the  air  of  a  fashionable  dance  of  Poictou.  The 
Psalms  rendered  by  Simon  Cock  into  the  Flemish  tongue, 
and  published  at  Brussels  1539,  contained  a  music  selected 
from  the  ballads  of  his  day,  each  Psalm  having  printed  at 
the  head  of  it  its  own  appropriate  tune. 

These  popular  and  vapid  airs  were  sung  to  the  Psalms 
not  only  in  the  court  and  among  the  populace,  but  by  the 
Reformed  congregations  in  their  public  worship,  previous  to 
the  second  edition  of  Marot' s  version. 

Florimod  de  Remond  objected  to  the  music  of  the  Cal- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  NETHEELAND  REFORMATION,       147 

vinistic  Psalms,  because,  as  he  said,  it  was  borrowed  from 
vulgar  ballads,  to  which  Sieur  de  Pours  replied  that,  what 
used  to  belong  to  profane  songs  was  now  separated  from 
them  and  was  become  in  a  measure  sanctified.  ' '  In  ancient 
times, ' '  he  adds,  '  'things  that  were  of  common  use,  even 
though  taken  as  plunder,  when  they  were  with  proper  rites 
separated  and  sequestered  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary, 
were  counted  holy. ' ' 

"When  the  Psalms  of  Marot  and  Beza  appeared  together, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Geneva  Church,  they  were  all 
found  set  to  popular  tunes.  Ten  thousand  copies  of  this 
version  were  issued,  and  the  new  airs  soon  became  as  popu- 
lar as  the  old.  These  Pbalm-tunes  were  procured  under  the 
auspices  of  Calvin.  The  chief  musician  whom  he  employed 
for  the  production  of  them  was  Guillaume  de  Franc;  al- 
though it  has  been  said  that  at  least  fifty  contributors  were 
numbered  in  the  edition  that  was  published  at  Strasburg  in 
1545. 

The  musicians  of  France  vied  with  one  another  in  pre- 
paring music  for  the  Psalms,  and  in  commending  themselves 
through  them  to  the  attention  and  favor  of  the  populace  and 
of  roj'alty.  De  Pours  observes  that  Lewis  Bourgeois  set 
eighty-three  Psalms  to  music,  in  four,  five  and  six  parts, 
which  were  printed  at  Lyons  in  1561. 

Of  the  Psalms  and  their  ' '  appropriate  tunes, ' '  Mason, 
in  his  work  on  English  Church  Music,  says,  ' '  The  verses 
were  easy  and  prosaic  enough  to  be  intelligent  to  the  meanest 
capacity.  The  melodies  to  which  they  were  set  rivaled  the 
words  in  plainness  and  simplicity.  They  who  could  read 
the  one,  could  find  little  difficulty  in  learning  to  sing  the 
other." 

Godeau,  Bishop  of  Grasse,  in  the  preface  to  his  French 
Paraphrase  of  the  Psalms,  bears  honorable  testimony  to  the 
Psalmody  of  the  Huguenots:  "Those  whose  separation  from 
the  Church  we  deplore,  have  rendered  their  version  cele- 
brated by  the  agreeable  airs  which  skillful  musicians  have 
composed  for  them.  To  know  those  sacred  songs  by  heart 
is  amongst  them,  as  it  were,  a  sign  of  their  communion; 
and  to  our  great  shame  in  great  cities,  where  they  are  most 


148  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

numerous,  the  Psalms  are  continually  heard  from  the  mouths 
of  artisans,  and  in  the  country  from  that  of  laborers,  while 
the  Catholics  are  either  silent  or  sino^  indecent  songs." 

That  which,  in  the  sacred  music  of  the  Reformation 
tunes,  most  attracts  our  notice  and  admiration  is  its  con- 
gregational character.  Perhaps  never  before,  certainly 
never  since,  has  the  true  idea  of  public  praise  been  so 
grandly  represented  as  in  those  vast  congregations  whose 
souls  united  in  the  spirit  and  voices  in  the  melody  of  heav- 
enly song.  There  was  no  trained  choir  of  vocalists,  no  in- 
tonings  of  the  organ  to  lead  or  inspire  the  masses;  yet  the 
volume  of  praise  that  rose  from  the  thousands  in  the  field 
meetings  of  Calvinists  in  the  Netherlands  has  been  repre- 
sented as  so  sublime  that  even  the  Antiphonies  of  Primitive 
Worship  and  the  chanting  of  the  Koyal  Band  of  the  Jewish 
Temple  would  appear  insignificant  beside  it.  The  command 
was  obeyed  in  the  highest  sense:  "  Let  the  people  praise 
thee,  O  God;  let  all  the  people  praise  thee.  O  let  the  na- 
tions be  glad  and  sing  for  joy." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Psalms  in  the  English  Reformation. 

The  history  of  the  Psalm-singing  of  the  English  people 
began  with  the  conversion  of  the  British  Isles  to  Christianity. 
At  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  when  St.  Augustine  crossed 
the  English  Channel  on  his  mission  of  conversion,  he  carried 
with  him  the  old  Italic  Psalter,  for  which  he  had  an  especial 
affection,  and  which  he  used  in  all  the  offices  of  the  mission 
church.  From  that  day  to  this  the  harp  of  David  has  never 
ceased  to  be  heard  in  the  worship  of  the  English-speaking 
nations.  Of  St.  Cuthbert,  in  the  seventh  century,  the  His- 
torian Bede  has  written:  "Such  was  the  piety  of  St.  Cuth- 
bert that  he  forgot  to  take  off  his  shoes  for  months  together, 
sometimes  the  whole  year  round  .  .  .  thus  did  man- 
kind go  reeling  through  the  dark  ages,  quarreling,  drinking, 
hunting,  hawking,  singing  Psalms,  wearing  breeches,  grind- 
ing in  mills,  eating  hot-bread,  rocked  in  cradles,  buried  in 
coffins — weak,  suffering,  sublime.  Well  might  St.  Alfred 
exclaim:  'Maker  of  all  creatures,  help  now  th}^  miserable 
mankind  !  '  " 

It  appears  that  the  teaching  of  the  Psalms  to  mere  chil- 
dren was  not  an  invention  of  Reformation  times  by  the 
pious  parents  of  Scotland,  for  nearly  one  thousand  years  be- 
fore the  days  of  Knox  and  his  fellow  reformers,  it  is  given 
as  an  evidence  of  the  precocity  of  Wilfrid  that  he  had  mem- 
orized the  entire  Psalter  before  he  was  fourteen  years  old. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventh  century  the  celebrated  Aid- 
helm,  a  bishop  in  the  English  Church,  rendered  the  Psalms 
into  the  native  tongue  of  the  Anglo-Saxons.  It  is  thought 
by  some  that  an  old  Psalm-book  preserved  at  Malmesbury 
till  after  the  Reformation  was  the  one  prepared  by  this  early 
poet. 

Bede,  the  great  historian  of  the  ancient  Britons,  and 
the  ornament  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  is  to  be  classed 
in  the  long  list  of  British  Psalmists.  His  death  occurred  in 
the  year  735. 

(149) 


160  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

One  of  Bede's  frequent  exercises  from  his  early  youth 
was  the  singing  of  the  Psalms.  A  part  of  each  day  was 
spent  in  this  manner.  When  he  was  elected  mass-priest  at 
the  age  of  thirty,  he  became  obligated  by  a  law  that  required 
this  daily  exercise — "The  mass-priest  should  at  least  have 
his  missal,  his  singing  book,  his  reader  ;  his  psalter,  his 
handbook,  his  penitential  and  numeral  one ;  he  ought  to 
have  his  officiating  garments  and  to  sing  from  sunrise,  with 
the  nine  intervals,  and  nine  readings.  His  sacramental  cup 
should  be  of  gold  or  silver,  or  tin,  and  not  of  earth,  at 
least  not  of  wood. ' ' 

When  in  his  last  sickness,  the  Psalms  afforded  him 
much  comfort.  Cuthbert,  his  pupil,  in  a  description  of  his 
closing  days,  says  "he  continued  cheerful  and  rejoicing, 
giving  thanks  to  Almighty  God  day  and  night,  nay,  even 
every  hour  till  the  day  of  our  Lord's  ascension.  He  daily 
read  lessons  to  us,  his  scholars  ;  the  rest  of  the  day  he  spent 
in  singing  Psalms.  The  nights  he  passed  without  sleep,  yet 
rejoicing  and  giving  thanks,  unless  when  a  little  slumber  in- 
tervened. When  he  awoke,  he  resumed  his  accustomed  de- 
votions, and,  with  expanded  hands,  never  ceased  returning 
thanks  to  God." 

Bede  claims  a  place  among  the  Psalmists  by  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Psalms  into  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue,  con- 
cerning which,  however,  little  is  known.  From  a  canon  of 
Cuthbert,  framed  in  747,  it  appears  that  Psalm-singing  was 
still,  in  the  eighth  century,  a  duty  required  among  the  nuns 
of  the  English  church.  It  was  ordained  that  "  nunneries 
be  not  places  of  secret  rendezvous  for  pithy  talk,  junketing, 
drunkenness  and  luxury,  but  habitations  for  such  as  live  in 
continence  and  sobriety,  and  who  read  and  sing  Psalms  ;  but 
let  them  spend  their  time  in  reading  books  and  singing 
Psalms,  rather  than  in  weaving  and  working  parti-colored, 
vain-glorious  apparel. ' ' 

One  of  Cuthbert' s  canons  relating  to  the  practice  of 
Psalmody,  gives  the  following  curious  argumeut  for  singing 
the  Psalms  of  the  Church  in  an  unknown  language, 
' '  Psalmody  is  a  divine  work,  a  great  cure  in  many  cases, 
for  the  souls  of  those  who  do  it  in  spirit  and  in  mind.     But 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  151 

they  that  sing  with  the  voice,  without  the  inward  meaning, 
may  make  the  sound  resemble  something,  therefore,  though 
a  man  knows  not  the  Latin  words  that  are  sung,  yet  he  may 
devoutly  apply  the  intention  of  his  own  heart  to  the  things 
which  are  at  present  to  be  asked  of  God,  and  fix  them  there 
to  the  best  of  his  power." 

Among  the  earliest  missionaries  to  Ireland,  and  the  first 
who  instructed  the  Irish  in  the  use  of  the  Roman  letters, 
was  St.  Patrick,  of  the  fifth  century.  In  conveying  his 
instruction  in  spelling  and  reading,  Patrick  made  use  of  his 
Psalter,  for  which  he  had  unusual  partiality.  Such  was  the 
rapidity  with  which  some  of  his  pupils  learned  to  read,  that 
they  were  able  to  peruse  the  Psalms  for  themselves  in  fifteen 
days.  A  poem  written  by  Fiac,  one  of  the  Irish  converts, 
and  a  poet  of  no  mean  distinction,  gives  some  of  the  habits 
of  St.  Patrick  in  the  practice  of  Psalmody:  "He  daily 
sang  the  Apocalypse  and  hymns  ;  and  the  whole  Psalter  he 
sang  thrice  ;  he  preached  and  baptized  and  prayed  ;  and  he 
incessantly  praised  God.  One  of  St.  Patrick's  modes  of 
mortification,  as  we  find  related  in  the  same  poem,  was  to 
stand  ' '  every  night  in  the  fountain  of  Slau,  which  was  never 
dry,  while  he  sang  an  hundred  Psalms, ' '  This  superstitious 
practice  was  not  confined  to  St.  Patrick ;  St.  Neat,  the 
kinsman  of  Alfred  ;  St.  Chad,  and  even  Aldhelm,  were  ac- 
customed to  chant  the  Psalms  while  standing  in  wells  or 
springs  of  water. 

The  Psalmist  of  the  ninth  century  was  Alfred,  surnamed 
the  Great.  Alfred  was  born  about  the  year  8-18,  and  was 
made  king  in  871.  Till  after  he  was  twelve  years  old,  this 
sovereign  did  not  know  one  letter  from  another;  yet  such 
was  his  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  his  ambition  to  attain, 
that  he  mastered  the  Latin  language  and  finally  even  became 
a  profound  scholar  for  those  times,  a  grammarian,  a  rheto- 
rician, a  philosopher,  a  historian,  a  musician,  the  Prince  of 
Saxon  poesy,  and  an  excellent  architect  and  geometrician." 
King  Alfred  was  an  earnest  friend  to  his  country,  and  made 
every  effort  to  secure  a  just  administration  of  the  law,  and 
to  diffuse  knowledge  among  his  subjects.  But  the  charac- 
ter in  which  he  is  represented  as  having  been  especially  dis- 


152  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

tinffiiished  was  that  of  the  Christian.  It  is  no  triflinsf  evi- 
dence  of  the  confidence  that  was  placed  in  his  integrity,  that 
he  was  known  in  his  day  as  '  'The  Truth  Teller. ' '  A  daily 
custom  with  him  was  to  attend  divine  service,  and  in  his  pri- 
vate devotion  was  much  eno;ao;ed  in  the  sinofino-  and  reading: 
of  the  Psalms.  That  he  might  ever  have  with  him  a  manual 
of  worship,  he  made  a  collection  of  Psalms  and  prayers  for 
the  offices  of  the  day,  and  carried  it  in  his  bosom.  The  last 
literary  work  that  this  monarch  undertook  was  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Psalms  into  the  Anglo-Saxon,  which,  however, 
he  did  not  live  to  finish. 

"This  victorious  warrior;  this  sagacious  statesman;  this 
friend  of  distress;  this  protector  against  oppression  who,  in 
an  age  of  ignorance  loved  literature  and  diffused  it;  who,  in 
an  age  of  superstition  could  be  rationally  pious;  and  in  the 
station  of  royalty  could  discern  his  faults,  and  convert  these 
into  virtues,  was  called  away  from  the  world  on  the  26th  day 
of  October  in  the  year  900  or  901." 

The  first  Anglo-Saxon  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms 
has  been  referred  to  the  twelfth  century.  The  translation 
is  a  close  rendering  of  Jerome's  Latin  Psalter,  known  as  the 
French  or  Galilean.  The  author  of  this  Psalm-book  is  un- 
known. A  copy  of  it  is  preserved  in  the  library  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  and  revised  copies,  pre- 
pared either  by  the  author  or  some  one  near  his  time,  in 
the  Bodleian  library,  and  among  the  Cotton  MSS.  at  the 
British  Museum.  The  fourteenth  century  presents  us  with 
the  last  Psalmist  previous  to  the  dawning  days  of  the  Refor- 
mation. This  was  Richard  Rolle,  a  monk  of  the  St.  Auo^us- 
tine  order,  and  a  native  of  Yorkshii'e.  Rolle  was  both  a 
commentator  and  versifier  of  the  Scriptures.  The  principal 
work  from  his  pen  was  an  English  version  of  the  Psalms.  Of 
his  undertaking  he  remarks  in  a  prologue  to  his  version,  "In 
this  werke  I  seek  no  strannge  Ynglys,  hot  lightest  and  com- 
munist, and  swilk  that  is  most  like  unto  the  Latyne:  so  that 
thai  that  knawes  noght  the  Latyne  be  the  Ynglys  may  com 
to  many  Latyne  words.  In  the  translacione  I  felogh  the  let- 
ter als — mekille  as  I  may,  and  thor  I  fyne  no  proper  Ynglys 
I  felogh  the  wit  of  the  wordis,  so  that  thai  that  shall  rede  it 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  153 

them  thar  not  drede  errynge.  In  the  expownyng  I  felogh 
holi  doctors.  For  it  may  conen  into  sum  envious  manner 
hond  that  knowj'-s  not  what  he  suld  says,  at  wille  say  that  I 
wist  not  what  1  sayd,  and  so  do  harme  tille  him  and  tille 
other. "  The  following  specimen  of  this  translation  has  been 
selected  from  the  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  and  pub- 
lished by  Rev.  H.  H.  Baber,  in  his  "Historical  Account  of 
the  Saxon  and  English  versions  of  the  Scriptures. ' ' 

TWENTY-THIKD   PsALM. 

"Our  Lord  governeth  me,  and  nothyng  to  me  shal  wante  :  stede  of 
pasture  thar  he  me  sette.  In  the  water  of  the  hetying  he  me  brougte: 
my  soul  he  twinyde." 

"He  ladde  me  on  the  stretis  of  ryghtwisnesse,  for  his  name." 

"For  win  gif  I  hadi  goo  in  myddil  of  the  shadowe  of  deeth:  I  shall 
not  dreede  yueles,  for  thou  art  with  me." 

"Thi  geerde  and  the  staf;  thei  haue  coumfortid  me.  Thou  has 
greythid  in  my  syght  a  bord:  agens  hem  that  angryn  me." 

"Thou  fattide  myn  hend  in  oyle;  and  my  chalys  drunkenyng  what 
is  cleer." 

"And  thi  mercy  shal  folewe  me:  in  alle  the  days  of  my  lyf. " 

Concerning  the  Psalmody  of  the  English  Reformers  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  very  little  is  recorded. 
That  the  Wickliffites  had  their  sacred  songs,  and  that  these 
songs  were  frequently  and  enthusiastically  sung  among  them 
appears  from  the  very  name  of  reproach  that  was  given  them 
liy  their  enemies.  They  were  called  "Lollards,"  a  term 
l)orrowed  from  the  German  root,  loben,  ' '  to  praise, ' '  with 
herr  "lord" — "praise  the  Lord" — and  given  them  because 
the  Wickliff  Christians  employed  themselves  in  traveling 
about  from  place  to  place,  singing  Psalms  and  hjonns.  Some 
derive  the  appellation  from  another  German  root,  signifying 
"to  sinor  with  a  low  voice,"  and  which  amons:  the  Germans 
was  applied  to  a  person  who  is  continually  praising  God  with 
songs  to  his  honor.  The  Alexians,  or  Cellites,  were  called 
Lollards  because  they  sang  their  songs  in  public;  and  made 
it  their  business  to  sing  a  dirge  as  they  carried  to  the  grave 
those  who  had  died  of  the  plague. 

There  is  a  strong  proliability  that  the  material  of  Wick- 
liff's  praise  bore  the  same  character  with  that  of  his  cotem- 
porary  Huss,  in  Bohemia;  and  that  it  comprised  principally 
the  Psalms  of  the  Bible.     As  there  were  frequent  intimacies 


154  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

between  Great  Britain  and  the  Continent  during  the  whole 
reign  of  Edward  III.,  it  was  just  as  natural  that  there  should 
be  a  conformity  between  the  Psalmody  of  England  and  that 
of  Bohemia,  as  that  there  should  be  such  conformity  between 
France  and  Switzerland,  or  between  Germany  and  Sweden 
or  Bavaria.  As  the  great  reformers  of  that  early  date  were 
communicating  back  and  forth  over  the  channel,  why  may 
we  not  suppose  that  the  Psalm-book  of  Huss  was  transferred 
to  the  English,  as  the  writings  of  Wickliff  were  transferred 
to  the  Bohemians?  The  probability  that  the  Wickliffites  had 
the  Psalms  among  their  sacred  lyrics  is  strengthened  by  the 
fact  that  there  had  been  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalter  in 
the  English  dialect  almost  two  centuries  previous,  and  that 
the  copy  now  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  library  bears  evidence 
of  having  been  remodeled  and  improved  by  a  hand  of  a  later 
date  than  its  author. 

When  we  come  down  to  Great  Britain,  as  it  entered  and 
passed  through  the  sunshine  of  the  sixteenth  century,  prob- 
abilities and  possibilities  are  dropped  with  the  night,  and  we 
are  cheered  with  what  we  can  greet  and  convey  as  facts. 

Great  Britain,  in  the  age  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule  of  sacred  song,  as  we  have  seen  it  writ- 
ten in  the  scenes  of  the  continent.  To  adopt  the  language 
of  Warton,  "The  infectious  frenzy  of  Psalm-singing  did 
not  confine  itself  to  France,  Germany  and  the  other  countries 
on  the  continent.  It  soon  extended  itself  to  Great  Britain. 
The  Reformation  being  then  in  its  incipiency,  and  at  a  time 
when  the  minds  of  men  were  ready  for  a  change.  Psalm- 
singing  in  its  history  became  parallel  to  that  among  the  lie- 
formers  across  the  continent.  There  will  be  found  this  ex- 
ception, that  the  popular  demand  for  these  songs  did  not 
reach  the  height  it  did  in  France.  In  Great  Britain  they 
did  not  so  successfully  insinuate  themselves  into  the  royal 
favor  and  so  fully  supplant  "ungodly  ballads." 

In  England,  as  a  learned  writer  observes,  when  the 
people  began  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Rome,  "men's  af- 
fections to  the  work  of  reform  were  everywhere  measured  by 
the  singing  or  not  singing  of  the  translated  Psalms." 

Psalm -singing  began  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  VIII, , 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  155 

was  continued  under  Edward  and  Mary,  but  did  not  reach 
its  highest  stasfe  till  the  accession  of  Elizabeth.  Althoucjh, 
according  to  statute  2  and  3  Edward  VI.,  c.  1,  §7,  the  people 
were  allowed  in  the  parish  churches  ' '  to  use  openly  any  Psalm 
or  prayer  taken  out  of  the  Bible,  at  any  due  time,  not  letting 
or  omitting  thereby  the  service  or  any  part  thereof,"  yet  in 
the  regular  service  of  the  English  church,  under  Henry, 
Edward  and  Mary,  the  Psalms  were  little  sung  only  as  they 
were  chanted  in  Coverdale's  revised  edition  of  the  old  Italic 
Psalter. 

By  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  the  popular 
Psalm -singing,  under  the  example  set  by  the  Reformers 
across  the  channel,  was  reaching  its  height,  when  that  Queen 
giving  public  permission  for  its  introduction  into  the 
churches  under  her  control,  there  began  a  series  of  those 
enthusiastic  gatherings,  which  we  have  seen  meeting  in 
Germany,  France  and  the  Low  Countries. 

Queen  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  in  1558  ;  and  what- 
evei  may  have  been  the  truth  as  to  her  real  sympathy  being 
with  the  papacy,  she  was  at  the  time  evidently  regarded  by 
the  Reformers  as  favorable  to  their  cause,  and  her  accession 
an  omen  of  its  speedy  triumph.  This  appears  clearly  from 
the  conduct  of  the  German  exiles,  who,  in  their  retreat, 
published  an  English  prose  translation  of  the  Psalms  and 
dedicated  it  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  This  Psalter  is  dated  1559, 
the  year  following  this  Queen's  accession,  and  contains  the 
following  complimentary  address  :  "To  the  most  virtuous 
and  noble  Queene  Elizabeth,  Queene  of  England,  France 
and  Ireland, ' '  etc.  After  stating  that  the  preparation  of 
the  English  translation  of  the  Bible  had  occupied  their  at- 
tention during  their  exile,  the  banished  Englishmen  add  : 
' '  When  we  heard  that  the  Almightie  and  most  merciful  God 
had  no  less  miraculously  preferred  you  to  that  excellent 
dignitie,  then  he  had  above  all  men's  expectations  preserved 
you  from  the  furie  of  such  as  sought  your  blood ;  with 
most  joyful  myndes  and  great  diligence  we  endeavoured 
ourselves  to  set  foorth  and  dedicate  this  most  excellent 
booke  of  the  Psalmes  unto  your  grace  as  a  spiritual  token  of 
our  service  and  good  will  till  the  rest  of  the  Bible,  which, 


156  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

praysed  be  God,  is  in  good  readinesse,  may  be  accomplished 
and  presented" — Epistle  3,  prefixed  to  the  Booke  of 
Psalmes,  Geneva,  1559,  16  mo. 

That  Queen  Elizabeth  permitted  and  virtually  authorized 
the  introduction  of  metrical  Psalmody  into  the  English 
Established  churches,  we  learn  from  the  fifty-three  articles 
of  injunction  which  she  directed  to  the  clergy  and  laity  in 
1559.  The  injunction  with  reference  to  "the  encourage- 
ment and  continuance  of  the  use  of  sing-inor  *  *  *  * 
in  divers  collegiate,  as  well  as  parish  churches, ' '  contains  the 
following  saving  clause  in  favoi"  of  uncathedral  and  metrical 
Psalmody,  nevertheless,  for  the  comforting  of  such  as  delight 
in  musick,  it  may  be  permitted  that  in  the  beginning  or  at 
the  end  of  common  prayer,  either  at  morning  or  evening, 
there  may  be  sung  a  hymn  or  such  like  song  to  the  praise  of 
Almighty  God,  in  the  best  melody,  and  musick  that  may  be 
devised  ;  having  respect  that  the  sentence  of  the  hymn  may 
be  understood  and  perceived. ' ' 

As  we  learn  from  Strype,  in  his  Annals  of  the  English 
Reformation,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  Queen's  permission, 
first  at  St.  Antholm's,  a  small  church  on  Walling  street, 
London  :  In  the  month  of  September,  1559,  began  the  new 
morning  prayers  at  St.  Antholm's,  London,  the  bell  begin- 
ning to  ring  at  5  o'clock,  when  a  Psalm  was  sung  after  the 
Genevan  fashion,  ' '  all  the  congregation,  men,  women  and 
boys  singing  together." 

From  this  church  Psalm-singing  spread  rapidly 
throughout  the  parishes,  and  soon  became  so  popular  that 
multitudes  were  attracted  to  the  churches,  where  as  many  as 
six  thousand  voices  might  at  times  be  heard  joining  in  the 
sacred  melodies. 

The  singing  of  the  Psalms  was  not  wholly  confined  to 
the  churches.  ' '  Adapting  them  to  popular  tunes  and  jigs, ' ' 
which  one  of  them  said  '  were  too  good  for  the  devil, '  the 
people  sang  the  new  songs  in  their  homes,  and  at  their 
employments,  as  in  the  primitive  church.  The  Psalms  were 
common  at  '  Mayor's  '  dinners  and  city  feasts  ;  soldiers  sang 
them  when  on  the  march,  or  when  at  parade  ;  few  houses, 
which  had  their  windows  fronting  the  streets,  but  had  their 


THE  PSALMS  IN   THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION,  157 

evening  Psalms  ;  for  a  story  has  come  down  to  us  that  the 
hypocritical  brotherhood  did  not  always  care  to  sing  without 
being  heard. ' ' 

There  is  evidence  that  the  infection  of  Psalm-singing 
even  reached  the  Cathedrals  of  the  English  church,  and 
aifected  the  dignitaries  as  well  as  the  populace.  At  the  con- 
vocation of  the  clergy  of  the  establishment  held  at  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  in  January  of  1582,  and  in  the 
presence  of  Archbishop  Grindal  and  other  Bishops,  we  find 
that  the  hymn  "  Veni  Creator, "  and  the  Psalm,  "  Beatus 
Vir, "  were  sung  "in  sermone  vuloari  "— in  the  vulo;ar 
tongue.  As  there  was  no  prose  translation  of  the  "  hymn  " 
sung,  it  must  have  been  the  metrical  translation  of  it  found 
in  the  "form  of  ordering  priests"  in  the  first  and  second 
Liturgies  of  Kino-  Edward  VI.     The  Psalm  in  the  vuloar 

en  o 

tongue  must  have  been  the  first  Psalm  of  Sternhold,  to 
which  the  words  "  Beatus  Vir"  were  prefixed  in  the  old 
English  translation,  and  as  they  are  still  prefixed  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Psalm  in  the  Latin  Vulgate.  So  that,  although 
Warton  denies  that  metrical  Psalm-singing  had  the  proper 
authority  from  the  Powers  of  the  church,  yet  it  had  plain 
permission,  and  the  public  example  of  the  dignitaries,  Avhich, 
with  the  people,  was  as  good  authority  as  a  written  license. 

Of  the  zest  with  which  the  Psalms  were  sung  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  says  Burney  in  his  History  of 
Music:  "In  England  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  the 
Psalms  were  sung  soto  voce;  but  after  the  accession  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  like  orgies  they  were  roared  aloud  in  al- 
most every  street,  as  well  as  in  the  churches  throughout  the 
kingdom." 

Dr.  Jewel,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  in  a  letter  to  Peter 
Martyr,  dated  March  5,  1560,  thus  speaks  of  Psalm-singing 
at  that  date:  "Religion  is  now  somewhat  more  established 
than  it  was.  The  people  are  everywhere  inclined  to  the 
better  part.  The  practice  of  joining  in  church  music  has 
much  conduced  to  this.  For  as  soon  as  they  had  once  com- 
menced singing  in  public  in  only  one  little  church  in  Lon- 
don (St.  Antholm's,  Walling  St.)  immediately  not  only  the 
churches  in  the  neighborhood,  but  even  the  towns  far  dis- 


158  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

tant  began  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  same  practice. 
You  may  now  sometimes  see  at  iSt.  Paul's  Cross,  after  ser- 
vice, six  thousand  persons,  old  and  young,  of  both  sexes, 
all  singing  together  and  praising  God." 

These  meetings  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  were  led  by  a 
Frenchman,  who  carried  on  the  Psalmody  after  the  fashion 
of  that  on  the  continent,  as  we  learn  from  the  following  en- 
tries by  Strype: 

< '1559-60,  March  the  3d. — Mr.  Veron,  a  Frenchman 
by  birth,  preached  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  in  his  rochet  and  chi- 
mere;  the  mayor  and  aldermen  present,  and  a  great  auditory. 
And  after  a  sermon  a  Psalm  was  sung  (which  was  common 
in  the  Keformed  churches  abroad)  wherein  the  people  also 
joined  their  voices." 

"1559-60,  March  the  17th.— Mr.  Veron,  a  Frenchman 
by  birth,  preached  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  before  the  mayor  and 
aldermen,  and  after  sermon  they  sang,  all  in  common,  a 
Psalm  in  metre,  as  it  seems  now  frequently  done,  the  cus- 
tom having  been  brought  from  abroad  by  the  exiles. ' ' 

The  earliest  versification  of  the  Psalms  into  Engflish 
metre  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  that  known  as  "Bishop 
Coverdale's  Version  of  the  Psalms. "  Miles  Coverdale  was 
a  native  of  Yorkshire,  England,  and  had  his  birth  about  the 
year  1486.  At  first  he  Avas  a  worshiper  in  the  Roman 
Church,  and  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Augustine.  But 
becoming  a  convert  to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  he, 
in  1535,  while  an  exile  for  his  faith,  gave  to  Great  Britain 
the  first  English  translation  of  the  whole  Bible. 

The  motive  of  Coverdale  in  preparing  his  metrical 
Psalms  was  not  that  they  might  be  sung  either  in  public  or 
private  worship,  for  he  was  then  a  Bishop  in  the  English 
Church,  which  confined  its  use  of  the  Psalms  in  song  to  the 
prose  translation;  but  that  they  might  be  substituted  for  the 
vulgar  ballads  of  the  day  that  were  sung  by  both  the  nobles 
and  the  people. 

With  this  intention  he  published  in  1539  his  "Ghostly 
Psalms  and  Spiritual  Songs,  Drawn  Out  of  the  Holy  Script- 
ures. ' ' 

The  work  be^an  with  the  author's  address  to  his  book: 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  159 

"Go  lytle  boke,  get  the  acquaintaunce 
Amonge  the  lovers  of  God's  worde 
Geve  them  ocoasyon  the  same  to  avannce 
And  to  make  theyr  songes  of  the  Lorde 

That  they  may  thrust  under  the  horde 

All  other  balettes  of  fylthynes 

And  that  we  all  with  one  accorde 

May  geve  ensample  of  goodlynes 

Go  lytle  boke  among  mens  chyldren 
And  get  the  to  theyre  com  pay  ne 
Teach  them  to  synge  ye  commaundements  ten 
And  other  balettes  of  God's  glorye 

Be  not  ashamed  I  warande  the 
Though  thou  be  rude  in  in  songe  and  ryme 
Thou  shalt  to  youth  some  occasyon  be 
In  godly  sports  to  pass  theyr  tyme." 

Bishop  Coverdale's  version  contained  the  versification 
of  only  thirteen  of  David's  Psalms. 

To  aid  in  carrying  out  his  design  for  displacing  the 
"ungodlie  ballates"  he  conformed  his  Psalms  to  the  metres 
of  these  ballads,  and  published  with  the  first  verse  of  each 
Psalm  the  musical  notes  to  which  that  Psalm  was  to  be 
sung. 

Coverdale's  Psalms  never  accomplished  the  end  de- 
signed for  them  by  their  author.  The  ungodly  songs  that 
had  corrupted  the  court  and  the  people  continued,  and  the 
Psalm-book  was  included  among  those  books  that  Henry 
VIII.  prohibited  being  possessed  by  the  people. 

Quite  a  number  of  contributions  to  metrical  psalmody 
bear  date  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. ,  which  terminated 
in  1553. 

The  first  after  the  Psalms  of  Coverdale  was  probably 
that  of  "the  ryojhte  vertuouse  Lady  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
our  late  soveragne  Henry  the  VIII.,"  who  afterward  suc- 
ceeded Mary  in  the  throne  of  the  British  dominions.  This 
Psalm  was  the  Fourteenth,  "aptelie  translated  into  Eng- 
lyshe, "  and  was  published  in  1548. 

In  her  translation  the  Queen  followed  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate, as  is  seen  from  her  including  the  interpolation  found 
in  Vulgate  version  of  the  Fourteenth  Psalm,  the  origin  of 
which  is  accounted  for  by  Dr.  Alexander: 


160  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

"The  Septuagint  version  of  these  words  fPs.  xiv.  3)  is  quoted  by 
Paul  in  Rom.  iii.,  12,  as  a  part  of  his  scrii^tural  description  of  human  de- 
pravity, the  rest  of  which  is  taken  from  Fs.  v.  10,  x.  7.,  xxxvi.  2,  cxl.  4, 
Isaiah  hx.  7,  8.  Under  the  false  impression  that  he  meant  to  quote  a 
single  passage,  some  early  Christian  copyist  appears  to  have  introduced 
the  whole  into  tlie  Septuagint  version  of  this  Psalm,  where  it  is  still 
found  in  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  as  well  as  in  the  Vulgate,  and  even  in 
one  or  two  Hebrew  MSS.  of  later  date.  The  interpolation  is  also  re- 
tained in  the  Anglican  Psalter." 

During  this  reign,  William  Hunnis,  gentleman  of  the 
chapel  under  Edward  VI.,  and  afterward  chapel  master  to 
Queen  Elizaijeth,  versified  the  seven  Penitential  Psalms  under 
the  title,  "Seven  Sobs  of  a  Sorrowful  Soul  for  Sin,"  and 
dedicated  them  to  Frances,  countess  of  Sussex,  foundress  of 
Sydney-Sussex  College,  at  Sussex.  Hunnis  is  thought  also  to 
have  been  the  author  of  certain  Psalms  published  in  1.550  in 
London,  and  entitled  "  Certayne  Psalms  in  English  metre," 
but  there  is  evidence  leading  to  the  supposition  that  these 
and  his  seven  Penitential  Psalms  were  identical.  Hunnis 
also  published  meditations  in  "Certaine  Psalms." 

1549.  In  this  year  Sir  Thos.  Wyatt  published  the  seven 
Penitential  Psalms  (and  as  some  suppose,  the  whole  Psalter) 
in  English  metre,  with  the  title,  "Certayne  Psalms  chosen 
out  of  the  Psalter  of  David,  commonly  called  the  vij.  Peni- 
tentiall  Psalmes,  drawen  into  English  metre  by  Sii'  Thomas 
Wyatt,  Knight,  whereunto  is  added  a  Prologue  of  the  auc- 
tore  before  every  Psalm,  very  pleasant  and  prof et table  to 
the  godly  reader.  Imprinted  at  London,  in  Paules  Church- 
yarde  at  the  sygne  of  three  starres  by  Thomas  Randall,  and 
John  Harrington,  cum  })riviliofis  ad  imprimendum  solum. 
Md.  xlix." 

These  Psalms  were  reprinted  by  Bishop  Percy  with  his 
ill-fated  impression  of  Surrey's  Poems,  which  was  burned 
in  1808,  in  the  destruction  by  fire,  of  the  warehouse  of  John 
Nichol.  To  these  Psalms  of  Wyatt,  Lord  Surrey  refers  in 
one  of  his  sonnets: 

"  The  Great  Macedon,  that  out  of  Persie  chased 
Darius,  of  whose  huge  power  all  Asia  rang. 
In  the  riche  ark  Dan  Homer's  rimes  he  placed, 
Who  fained  gestes  of  heathen  princes  song. 
What  holy  grave,  what  worthy  sepulchre, 
Lo,  Wyatt's  Psalms  should  Christians  then  purchase? 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  161 

Where  he  doth  paint  the  hvely  faith  and  pure: 
The  steadfast  hope,  the  sweet  return  of  grace, 
Of  just  David  by  perfite  penitence." 

The  few  Psalms  that  Surrey  himself  rendered  into  verse 
were  published  in  London  about  1567. 

1549.  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  Secretary  to  Edward  VI.,  while  a  prisoner 
in  the  Tower,  turned  eleven  of  the  Psalms  into  English  metre,  which 
were  published  the  same  year. 

1649.  '  'Psalter  of  David  newely  translated  into  English  metre  in 
such  sorte  that  it  may  the  more  decently  and  wyth  more  delygte  of  the 
minde  be  reade  and  songe  of  al  men.  Translated  and  imprinted  by 
Eobert  Crowley." 

This  was  the  first  entire  versification  of  the  Psalms  into 
the  English  of  which  we  have  any  definite  knowledge.  With 
it  were  published  certain  Latin  hymns;  but  the  version  never 
came  to  be  esteemed. 

1549.  In  this  year  were  published  by  E.  Whitchurch,  "All  such 
Psalms  of  David  as  Thomas  Sternhold,  late  grome  of  the  Kynges  Majes- 
ties Roobes,  did  in  his  lifetime  drawe  into  English  metre." 

Thomas  Sternhold,  according  to  one  authority,  was  born 
in  Hampshire;  according  to  a  second,  at  Southampton;  ac- 
cording to  a  third,  at  Aure,  a  parish  about  twelve  miles 
from  Gloucester.  Having  passed  some  time  at  Oxford,  he 
went  to  London  to  serve  as  groom  of  the  robes  of  King 
Henry  VIII.,  who  bequeathed  him  a  legacy  of  one  hundred 
marks.  When  Edward  VI.  came  to  the  throne  he  was  con- 
tinued in  the  privie  chamber. 

He  was  a  firm  friend  to  the  Reformation,  and  a  man  of 
sincere  piety.  His  death  occurred  in  1549.  Sternhold  ver- 
sified his  Psalms  with  reference  to  the  same  end  proposed  by 
Coverdale,  in  England,  and  Marot  in  France,  that  the  use  of 
the  lascivious  songs  among  the  courtiers  might  be  checked; 
but  in  this  he  was  disappointed. 

Authorities  differ  as  to  the  number  of  Psalms  turned 
into  metre  by  Sternhold.  Some  state  that  an  edition  was 
published  earlier  than  1549,  and  contained  only  nineteen 
Psalms.  Warton  in  his  history,  and  Townley  in  his  "Bibli- 
cal Literature,"  give  him  credit  for  fifty-one  Psalms  in  all. 
By  other  authorities  he  versified  forty  Psalms,  and  by  others 
forty-four.     That  opinion,  however,  which  has  been  accepted 


162  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

by  most  historians  is,  that  only  thirty-seven  belona^ed  to 
him.  These  were  the  1-17;  19-21;  25,  28,  29,  32,  U,  41, 
43,  44,  49,  63,  68,  73,  78,  103,  120,  123,  128.  According 
to  T.  H.  Home,  the  edition  of  Sternhold  published  by  Whit- 
church in  1549  contained  only  a  portion  of  his  renderings; 
and  that  the  whole  thirty-seven  were  not  published  till  after- 
ward. In  1551  appeared  an  edition  containing  thirty-seven 
from  Sternhold  and  seven  from  John  Hopkins.  These  were 
the  30th,  33d,  42d,  52d,  79th,  82d,  146th. 

Of  John  Hopkins,  the  successor  of  Sternhold,  bio- 
graphical history  says  but  little.  He  was  admitted  at  Ox- 
ford in  1544,  and  is  supposed  afterward  to  have  served  as  a 
minister  at  Suffolk.  He  was  still  living  in  1556.  By  War- 
ton  he  was  considered  a  better  poet  than  Sternhold.  Alto- 
gether, fifty-eight  Psalms  are  ascribed  to  him. 

To  complete  the  volume  of  Psalms  that  came  into  use 
in  the  English  Church,  and  was  bound  up  with  its  Liturgy, 
it  is  necessary  to  follow  the  English  exiles,  who  had  fled 
under  the  persecutions  of  Mary.  In  the  language  of  a 
recent  report  of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland,  ' '  The  next  onward  step  is  peculiarly  interest- 
ins:,  as  our  own  Knox  comes  into  view  in  relation  to  it.  It 
is  the  reign  of  Mary  of  England.  A  congregation  of 
Protestant  refugees  from  that  country  is  found  at  Frankf ort- 
on-the-Main.  Knox  is  chosen  pastor,  and  takes  a  chief 
part  in  drawing  up  a  book  of  Church  order.  But  dissensions 
arise  between  the  adherents  of  the  English  Liturgy  and 
Whittinffham  and  others  who  concur  with  Knox.  The  lat- 
ter  party  retire  to  Geneva  in  1555,  and  there  form  a  distinct 
church.  The  Book  of  Order  is  completed  and  published, 
and  Knox,  though  absent  for  a  time,  is  continued  as  their 
pastor.  Materials  for  praise  are  sought  as  part  of  said 
Book  of  Order ;  and  for  this  purpose  the  forty-four  Psalms 
(the  thirty-seven  of  Sternhold  and  seven  of  Hopkins)  already 
mentioned,  are  adopted,  but  after  very  considerable  altera- 
tions, these  being  intended,  as  stated  in  the  preface,  to  bring 
them  to  closer  conformity  with  the  Hebrew.  Seven  Psalms 
are  added  by  Whittingham,  a  tune  is  attached  to  each  of  the 
fifty-one  Psalms,  the  collection  is  published  along  with  the 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION,  163 

Book  of  Order  in  1556.  Sometime  afterwards  nine  Psalms  by 
Whittingham  and  two  by  Puliain  were  added,  and  in  1561, 
the  work,  so  far  as  it  may  be  considered  a  Genevan  publica- 
tion, reached  its  final  stage  by  the  addition  of  twenty-five 
Psalms  from  the  pen  of  William  Kethe,  a  native  of  Scotland. 
Amongst  these  last,  there  falls  to  be  ranked  the  well-known 
One  hundredth  Psalm  in  long  metre,  which  is  often  er- 
roneously ascribed  to  Hopkins. ' ' 

An  edition  had  been  published  in  1560,  containing  sixty- 
seven  Psalms,  with  the  Hymns,  Benedictus,  Magnificat 
and  Nunc  Dimittis,  in  metre.  The  edition  of  1561,  beside 
the  eighty-seven  Psalms,  had  the  song  of  Simeon,  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  the  other  spiritual  songs  found  in  later 
publications.  In  1563  appeared  the  entire  one  hundred  and 
fifty  Psalms,  which  were  entitled  "The  whole  Boke  of 
Psalms  collected  into  English  metre  by  Thomas  Sternhold, 
J.  Hopkins  and  others;  conferred  with  the  Ebrue,  with  apt 
notes  to  sing  them  with  all.  Faithfully  perused  and  al- 
lowed, according  to  the  order  appointed  in  the  Queenes 
Majesties  injunctions,  very  mete  to  be  used  by  all  sorts  of 
people  privately  for  their  solace  and  comfort,  laying  apart  all 
ungodly  songs  and  ballades,  which  tend  only  to  the  nourish- 
ing of  vice  and  corrupting  of  youth.  Imprinted  at  London 
by  John  Day,  dwelling  over  Aldersgate,  benethe  Saint  Mar- 
tins. Cum  gratia  et  privilegia  Regie  Majestatis  per  sep- 
tennium  an  1563." 

In  all  the  editions  of  this  version,  which  is  commonly 
known  as  the  "old  version,"  the  authorship  of  the  several 
Psalms  is  designated  by  the  initial  letters  of  the  authors' 
names— L.  S.,  J.  H.,  W.  W.,  N.,  W,  K,,  L,  C,  (or  I.  C, 
as  it  is  in  some  editions).  In  the  same  year  with  the  publi- 
cation of  the  complete  Psalm-book,  and  again  in  1565,  Day 
printed  an  edition  with  the  music,  in  parts,  viz. :  '  'The 
whole  Psalmes  in  fourt  partes  (Tenor,  Contra-Tenor,  Me- 
dius  and  Bassus),  which  may  be  song  to  al  musical  instru- 
ments, set  forth  for  the  encrease  of  vertue,  and  abolyshing 
of  other  vayne  and  triflyng  ballades. ' ' 

The  completed  version  of  Sternhold,  Hopkins  and 
others,  did  not  immediately  come  into  use  in  the  English 


161  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

churches.  Until  1548  the  Psalms  were  chanted  in  the  Latin 
prose,  but  in  this  year  appeared  a  prose  version  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue  bearing  the  title,  "The  Psalter  or  Psalmes  of 
David  after  the  translation  of  the  Great  Bible,  poincted  as 
it  should  be  song  in  the  churches."  This  version  was 
adopted  by  the  Establishment,  and  was  for  many  years  the 
principal  basis  of  praise.  By  the  use  of  the  metrical  version 
of  Sternhold  and  others,  beginning  at  St.  Antholms,  the 
prose  rendering,  and  with  it  the  chant,  passed  into  rapid  de- 
cline. Some  idea  of  the  decreasing  interest  in  the  prose 
translation  and  the  increasing  interest  in  that  in  metre  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  during  the  first  two  years  of 
Elizabeth's  reign  six  distinct  editions  in  prose  were  pub- 
lished, while  only  two  editions  appeared  in  the  last  ten  years 
of  her  power;  yet  during  the  latter  period  there  were  issued 
twenty-five  editions  of  Sternhold's  Psalm>».  In  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  extending  over  twenty-two  years,  only  four 
editions  of  the  prose  Psalter  are  recorded,  the  metrical 
editions  in  the  same  period  numliering  over  sixty.  After 
the  appearance  of  the  "Old  Version,"  the  Common  Metre, 
known  in  classical  literature  as  the  iambic  stanza,  8s  and  6s, 
became  almost  universal.  All  of  Cowley's  Psalms  and  sev- 
eral of  Sternhold's  were  of  this  metre. 

The  "Old  Version"  was  continued  in  England  almost 
till  the  time  of  the  Restoration.  During  the  protectorate  of 
Cromwell  attempts  were  made  to  have  the  versions  of  Bar- 
ton and  Rous  introduced  into  the  English  Episcopal 
Church,  but  without  success.  One  of  the  best  evidences  of 
the  popularity  of  these  rudely-constructed  Psalms  is  the 
great  number  of  editions  that  were  issued,  even  after  the 
authorizing  of  the  "New  Version"  of  Tate  and  Brady. 
Previous  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  th^re 
were  seventy -four  editions;  in  the  seventeenth  century  there 
were  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  editions.  "In  1868," 
Alice  Earle  tells  us  in  her  "Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  Eng- 
land," "six  hundred  and  one  editions  were  known." 
"Among  other  editions,"  she  adds,  "this  version  bad  in  the 
time  of  Charles  II.,  two  in  short  hand,  one  printed  by 
'Thos.  Cockerill  at  the  Three  Legs  and  Bible  in  the  Ponl- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  165 

try. '  Two  copies  of  these  editions  are  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. They  are  tiny  little  64-mos,  of  which  half  a  dozen 
could  be  laid  side  by  side  on  the  palm  of  the  hand. ' ' 

At  the  present  day  this  version  is  still  in  authorized 
use  in  the  United  Church  of  England  and  Ireland.  It  is  not 
often  met  with  in  the  latter  country,  but  in  the  country  par- 
ishes of  England  it  is  frequently  in  use. 

In  the  old  register  of  the  town  of  Ipswich  is  positive 
evidence  that  Sternhold's  and  Hopkins'  version  was  in  use 
in  some  of  the  early  New  England  settlements.  An  edition 
was  printed  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1693,  a  fact  which  leads 
Alice  Earle  to  remark:  "To  thus  publish  the  work  of  the 
English  Psalmists  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  popularity  of 
nhe  Bay  Psalm-Book'  is  to  me  a  proof  that  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins'  version  was  employed  far  more  extensively  in  the 
colonial  churches  and  homes  than  we  now  have  records  of, 
and  than  many  of  our  church  historians  now  fancy. ' ' 

Few  works  that  have  ever  come  from  the  press  have 
met  with  such  extremes  of  popular  favor  and  personal  ridi- 
cule as  have  these  old  English  Psalms. 

Thus  Phillips  refers  to  them: 

"Singing  with  woful  noise 
Like  a  cracked  Saint's  bell  jarring  in  the  steeple, 
Tom  Sternhold's  wretched  prick-son  for  the  people." 

An  English  courtier  and  poet  wrote: 

"Sternhold  and  Hopkins  had  great  qualms 
When  they  translated  David's  Psalms." 

Even  the  great  and  good  Wesley  could  not  pass  this 
old  version  without  the  sneer:  "When  it  is  seasonable  to 
sing  praises  to  Go;l  we  do  it,  not  in  the  scandalous  doggerel 
of  Hopkins  and  Sternhold,  but  in  Psalms  and  hymns  which 
are  both  sense  and  poetry  such  as  would  provoke  a  critic  to 
turn  Christian  rather  than  a  Christian  to  turn  critic. ' ' 

The  following  criticisms  upon  the  ' '  Old  Version  ' '  are 

added  to  show  the  estimation  in  which  it  was  held  among 

eminent  critics: 

"Its  rudeness  has  become  even  proverbial.  The  verse  is  very  incor- 
rect, the  sense  not  always  clear,  and  the  expression  sometimes  exceed- 
ingly vulgar.  And  yet  even  in  this  version  there  are  a  few  stanzas,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Eighteenth  and  One  hundred  and  third  Psalms,  which 
no  true  poet  would  undertake  to  improve." — Dr.  Beattie. 


166  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

As  specimens  of  the  rudeness  and  vulgarity  alluded  to 
by  Dr.  Beattie  the  following  verses  have  been  selected: 

Ps.  78 :  46. 
"Nor  how  he  did  commit  their  fruits 

Unto  the  caterpillar; 
And  all  the  labor  of  their  hands, 

He  gave  to  the  grassliopper." 

Ps.  74:  12. 
"Why  dost  thou  draw  thy  hand  aback, 

And  hide  it  in  thy  lap  ? 
Oh  pluck  it  out  and  be  not  slack 

To  give  thy  foes  a  rap." 

"The  merit  of  faithful  adherence  to  the  original  has  lieen  claimed 
for  this  version,  and  need  not  be  denied;  but  it  is  the  resemblance  which 
the  dead  bear  to  the  living,  and  to  hold  such  a  version  forth  (which 
some  learned  men  have  lately  done)  as  a  model  of  standard  Psalmody 
for  the  use  of  Christian  congregations  in  the  nineteenth  century,  surely 
betrays  an  affectation  of  singularity  or  a  deplorable  defect  of  taste." — 
James  Montgomerj',  of  Sheffield. 

"The^'  wonder  I  would  make  use  of  this  version  which  they  think  is 
poor,  flat  stuff;  the  poetry  is  miserable,  and  the  language  low  and 
base.  To  which  I  answer,  they  had  a  scrupulous  regard  for  the  very 
words  of  Scripture,  and  to  these  they  adhered  closely  and  strictly,  so 
much  as  to  render  the  versification  not  equal  to  Mr.  Pope.  I  grant  it  is 
not  always  smooth;  it  is  only  here  and  there  brilliant.  But  what  is  a 
thousand  times  more  valuable,  it  is  generally  the  sentiment  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  That  is  very  rarely  lost.  And  this  should  silence  every  objec- 
tion— it  is  the  Word  of  God;  moreover  the  version  comes  nearer  the 
Scotch,  of  which  I  have  made  use,  when  it  appeared  to  me  better  ex- 
pressed than  the  English." — Romaine. 

"Perhaps  one  of  the  most  faultless  in  this  respect  (literalness)  is  an 
almost  obsolete  one  in  our  language,  viz.,  that  by  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins. Because  of  its  uncouth  form  this  version  has  been  unjustly  vilified, 
while  others,  by  far  its  inferiors,  have  been  unreasonably  extolled.  The 
authors  of  this  version,  for  it  is  taken  directly  from  the  Hebrew  text, 
have  sacrificed  everything  to  the  literal  sense  and  meanino-." — Adam 
Clark. 

They  (Christians)  may  receive  much  assistance  from  a  work  which 
the  ignorance  of  modern  refinement  would  take  out  of  their  hands.  I 
speak  of  the  old  singing  Psalms,  a  metrical  version  of  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins.  This  is  not  what  I  believe  it  is  now  generally  supposed  to  be, 
nothing  better  than  an  awkward  versification  of  a  former  English  trans- 
lation; it  is  an  original  translation  from  the  Hebrew  text,  earlier  b)' 
many  years  than  the  prose  translation  in  the  Bible;  and  of  all  that  are  in 
any  degree  paraphrastic,  as  all  in  verse  in  some  degree  must  be,  it  is  the 
best  and  most  exact  we  have  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. The  authors  of  this  version  considered  the  verse  merely  as  a  con- 
trivance to  assist  the  memory.  They  were  little  studious  of  the  har- 
mony of  their  numbers,  or  tlie  elegance  of  their  diction,  but  they  were 
solicitous  to  give  the  full  and  precise  sense  of  the  sacred  text  according 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORM ATION.  167 

to  the  best  of  their  judgment,  and  their  judgment,  with  the  exception  of 
some  few  passages,  was  very  good;  and  at  the  same  time  that  they  ad- 
hered scrupulously  to  the  letter,  they  contrived  to  express  it  in  such 
terms  as,  like  the  original,  might  point  clearly  to  the  spiritual  mean- 
ing."— Bishop  Horsely. 

After  the  period  of  the  publication  of  Sternhold's 
Psalms  the  versions  of  the  Psalms  became  so  numerous  that 
mention  can  be  made  of  those  only  that  possess  historic  in- 
terest. 

1557.  This  year  Archbishop  Parker  finished  and  had  published  the 
whole  book  of  Psalms,  entitled  '  'The  whole  Psalter  translated  into  Eng- 
lish metre,  which  contayneth  an  hundred  and  fifty  Psalms.  Imprinted 
at  London  by  John  Dave,  dwelling  over  Aldergate,  beneath  St.  Martyn's. 
Cum  privilegis.     Per  discennium." 

Parker's  version  of  the  Psalms  was  prepared  while  he 
was  in  privacy  from  the  tyranny  of  Queen  Mary.  It  con- 
tained the  following  apology  for  turning  the  Scripture  into 
ihyme: 

"  Tlie  Psalmist  stayde  with  tuned  songe 

The  rage  of  myndes  agast, 
As  David  did  with  harpe  among 

To  Saul  in  Fury  cast. 
"With  golden  stringes  such  harmonie 

His  harpe  so  sweet  did  wrest 
That  he  relieved  his  phrenesie 

Whom  wicked  spirits  possest." 

This  rare  book  was  divided  into  three  quinguagenes,  or 
parts  of  fifty  Psalms  each,  with  the  argument  of  each  Psalm 
in  metre  placed  before  it,  and,  at  the  end  of  it  a  suitable  col- 
lect full  of  devotion  and  piety. 

This  version,  though  it  never  came  into  use,  was  pre- 
pared with  reference  to  being  sung  in  public.  For  this  pur- 
pose, eight  tunes  were  added  to  the  book  with  this  notice  of 
them: 

''The  Nature  of  the  Eyght  Tunes." 

"  The  first  is  meek,  devout  to  see, 
The  second  sad,  in  majesty: 
The  third  doth  rage,  and  roughly  brayth, 
The  fourth  doth  fawne  and  flatly  playth: 
The  fifth  deligth,  and  laugheth  the  more, 
The  sixth  bewayleth,  it  weipeth  full  sore: 
The  seventh  tredeth  stoute  in  fro^^'ard  race, 
The  eyghte  goeth  mildein  mode;4  pace." 


168  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Even  Lord  Bacon,  born  1561,  spent  part  of  his  long, 
dark  evenings  in  versifying  the  Psalms.  He  published  seven 
and  dedicated  them  to  his  friend  George  Herbert.  Of  his 
Psalms,  it  has  been  said,  the  "fine  gold  of  David  is  so  thor- 
oughly melted  down  with  the  refined  silver  of  Bacon,  that 
the  mixture  shows  nothing  of  alloy,  but  a  metal  greater  in 
bulk  and  differing  in  show  from  either  of  the  component  ele- 
ments, yet  exhibiting  at  the  same  time  a  lustre  wholly  derived 
from  the  more  precious  of  them. ' '  Aubrey  declared  Lord 
Bacon  to  have  been  a  good  poet,  but  that  in  his  Psalms,  his 
piety  is  more  to  be  commended  than  his  poetry. 

Holland,  in  his  "Psalmists  of  Britain,"  gives  account  of 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons  who  versified  either  a 
part  or  all  of  the  Psalms  by  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Among  others  are  the  names  of  John  Milton  anl 
Richard  Baxter.  Baxter's  paraphrase  was  published  in  1692 
Many  of  these  versions  are  said  to  have  been  curious  speci- 
mens of  literature.  Some  were  composed  at  a  time  when 
classical  studies  had  l)ecome  fashionable,  and  so  exhibit  an 
effort  to  introduce  classic  metres  and  classic  terms  and  phrases 
into  the  versification. 

In  the  Second  Psalm  Stranghurst  has  the  following  lines: 

"  He  skorns  their  mocking,  that  dwells  in  blessed  Olympus: 
And  at  their  brainsick  trumperie  follye  flireth." 

Fraunce  has  displayed  his  classic  taste  in  the  Eighth 
Psalm  thus: 

*'  0  Prince  all-puysant,  O  King  almightey  ruling, 
How  wondrous  be  thy  workes,  and  how  strange  are  thy  proceedings? 
Thou  hast  thy  great  name  with  moste  greate  glory  reposed, 
Over,  above  those  lamps,  bright  burning  lamps  of  Olympus." 

The  version  of  George  Withers  and  that  of  George 
Sandys  were  both  privileged  royally  to  be  used  in  the  English 
churches.  After  Sandys  returned  from  a  tour  through  the 
Holy  Land,  he  was  employed  in  the  government  of  the 
colony  of  Virginia,  where  he  held  the  post  of  Treasurer  to 
the  company.  It  is  said  that  his  Psalms  were  composed  by 
the  banks  of  the  James  river.  His  Psalms  were  pub- 
lished in  Enofland  in  1638. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  169 

The  Metamorphosis  of  Ovid  by  Sandys  was  the  first 
literary  production  ever  published  in  America,  having  been 
issued  in  1626.  Sandys  was  pronounced  by  Dryden,  the 
best  versifier  of  the  age.  Of  his  Psalms,  Montgomery  says 
they  are  "incomparably  the  most  poetical  in  the  English 
language."  They  were  one  of  the  few  books  with  which 
Charles  I.  solaced  himself  in  his  captivity  in  Carisbrook 
Castle.  A  selection  from  Sandys  is  given  as  follows  : 
PSALM  XXIX.    George  Sandys. 

Ye  that  are  of  princely  birth  ! 

Praise  the  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth  ; 

Glory  give  ;  His  power  proclaim  ; 

Praise  and  magnify  His  name. 

Worship  in  the  beauty,  bless, 

Beanty  of  His  Holiness. 

Fi'om  the  dark  and  showery  cloud, 

On  the  floods  that  roared  alond. 

Hark  !     His  voice  with  terror  breaks, 

God — our  God- in  Thunder  sjieaks  ! 

Powerful  in  His  voice  on  high, 

Full  of  power  and  majesty. 

Lofty  cedars  overthrown, 

Cedars  of  deep  Lebanon. 

Calf-like  skipping  on  the  ground, 

Lebanon  and  Sirion  bound, 

Like  a  youthful  unicorn  ; 

Labouring  clouds  with  lightning  torn. 

At  his  voice  the  desert  shakes  ; 

Kadish  !     Thy  vast  desert  quakes. 

Trembling  hinds  then  calve  for  fear  ; 

Shady  forests  bare  appear. 

His  renown  by  every  tongue, 

Through  His  Holy  Temple  sung  ; 

He  the  raging  floods  restrains  ; 

He  a  King  forever  reigns, 

God  his  people  shall  increase, 

Arm  with  strength,  and  bless  with  peace. 

Almost  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  first  appear- 
ance of  Sternhold's  Psalms,  appeared  the  version  that  subse- 
quently supplanted  the  "Old  version,"  and  came  to  be 
known,  by  way  of  distinction,  as  the  "New  version." 
This  was  the  version  of  Tate  and  Brady, 

The  Psalter  of  these  joint  authors  appeared  with  the 
title :  "A  new  version  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  fitted  to 
tunes  used  in  churches.  By  Nanum  Tate  and  Nicholas 
Brady.     Jjondon,    1696."     A    specimen   of    these   Psalms 


170  David's  harp  in  song  and  stoky. 

was  printed  for  the  compan}'^  of  stationers  in  1695,  under 
the  title  :  "An  essay  of  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms  of 
David,  consisting  of  the  first  twenty  ;  fitted  to  tunes  used 
in  churches." 

This  new  version  was  introduced  to  the  public  under 
the  sanction  of  an  order  in  privy  council,  by  King  William 
III.,  dated  December  3,  1696.  Though  this  sanction  bad 
no  legal  authority  after  the  decease  of  William,  yet  it  con- 
tinued to  be  printed  in  all  subsequent  editions.  By  the  order 
of  the  privy  council  it  was  declared  "that  the  said  new 
version  of  the  Psalms  in  English  metre  be,  and  the  same 
hereby  is,  allowed  and  permitted  to  be  used  in  all  such 
chapels,  churches  and  congregations,  as  shall  think  fit  to  re- 
ceive them."  In  1698,  a  second  edition  of  the  new  version 
was  printed,  corrected  and  improved.  In  the  same  year 
appeared  "  a  brief  and  full  account  of  Mr.  Tate  and  Mr. 
Brady's  new  version  of  the  Psalms  ;  by  a  True  Son  of  the 
Church  of  England."  From  it,  as  quoted  by  T.  H.  Home, 
we  learn  that  the  undertaking  originated  between  Tate  and 
Brady  themselves — "in  a  little  time  it  was  communicated 
and  as  speedily  received  and  nourished  by  persons  of  the 
highest  rank  and  principal  authorities  in  the  nation  in  the 
Church  and  State.  *  *  *  When  the  work  was  finished 
and  had  passed  the  censure  of  His  Grace,  the  Archbishop 
(Dr.  Tillotson),  and  several  more  of  his  brethren,  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Prelates,  a  petition  was  presented  to  His  Majesty 
(William  III.)  in  council,  for  allowing  the  liberty  of  public 
reception  of  it  in  all  churches,  chapels  and  congregations. 
For  the  perfection  of  their  Psalms,  the  translators  invited 
"all  their  friends,  both  in  city  and  country,  to  supervise  and 
correct  what  was  amiss."  The  Bishops  and  the  translators' 
friends  having  made  their  corrections,  and  the  version 
having  gained  public  approbation  by  His  Majesty's  royal 
indulgence,  the  new  version  was  used  first  in  the  churches  of 
London,  and  its  vicinity,  principally  through  the  recom- 
mendation of  Bishop  Compton  ;  and  subsequently  was 
gradually  adopted  in  all  England  through  the  recommendation 
of  Archbishop  of  York,  and  others.  At  the  first,  though 
the  new  version  was  patronized  by  William  and  his  court. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  171 

the  villages  were  slow  in  adopting  it.  The  masses  of  the 
communities  were  familiar  with  the  ' '  old  version, ' '  and  so 
clung  tenaciously  to  it.     Like  Hannah  Moore's  Squire, 

"  They  thought  'twould  show  a  falling  state 
If  Sternhold  should  give  way  to  Tate." 

Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  many  critics,  among 
whom  was  the  well-known  Dr.  Beveridge.  the  "new  version" 
at  length  took  the  place  of  the  old,  and  is  now  used  in  most  of 
the  Episcopal  churches  in  England,  Ireland,  Scotland  and 
the  British  colonies. 

Of  the  new  version,  Bishop  Compton  said  in  1698:  "I 
find  it  a  work  done  with  so  much  judgment  and  ingenuity 
that  I  am  persuaded  it  may  take  oflf  that  unhappy  objection 
that  has  hitherto  lain  against  the  singing  Psalms,  and  dis- 
pose that  part  of  divine  service  to  much  more  devotion.  And 
I  do  heartily  recommend  the  use  of  this  version  to  all  my 
brethren  within  my  diocese. ' ' 

Drake,  in  his  "Harp  of  Judah,"  says  of  this  version, 
"  The  prevailing  defect  is  that  of  tameness  and  monotony  of 
execution,  though  there  are  a  few  beautiful  exceptions  to 
this  censure." 

"  The  rude  English  version  of  the  Psalms  by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins 
was  superseded  bj'  that  of  Tate  and  Brady — a  sacrifice  of  rugged  strength 
to  insipid  smoothness  and  inflated  verbosity.  Milton's  attempts 
at  translation  only  show  that  his  strong  arm  could  not  bend  the  bow  of 
Ulysses.  The  Scottish  version,  though  in  reality  the  work  of  an  English 
Puritan,  has,  with  all  its  roughness  and  dissonance,  preserved  more  of 
the  vital  spirit,  the  rich,  pure  aroma  of  the  Hebrew  original." — British 
Encyclopsedia. 

The  third  great  epoch  in  the  Psalmody  of  England  be- 
gan with  the  publication  of  the  Psalms  and  Hymns  of  Dr. 
Isaac  Watts,  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

His  first  renderings  of  the  Psalms  were  made  previous  to 
1707,  as  the  addition  of  Hymns  used  in  that  year  contained 
fourteen  or  fifteen  Psalms.  In  the  edition  of  1709  these 
were  omitted,  as  the  Doctor  had  formed  the  idea  of  versify- 
ing the  entire  Psalter.  His  whole  Psalm-book  was  published 
with  his  Hymns  in  1719,  the  entire  volume  containing  six 
hundred  and  ninety-eight  pieces. 

The  origin   of  Dr.  Watts'  design  for   composing   his 


172  David's  hakp  in  song  and  story. 

Psalms  and  Hymns  for  the  Church  arose  from  a  dislike  he 
had  contracted  for  the  Psalms  and  Psalm-singing  in  the  old 
Dissenting  meeting  house,  where  he  had  become  a  member 
under  Rev.  Thomas  Kowe,  about  1693.  Of  this,  the  Rev. 
John  Morgan,  of  Romsey,  Hampshire,  Eng. ,  says,  ' '  The 
occasion  of  the  Doctor's  hymns  was  this,  as  I  heard  the  ac- 
count from  his  fellow-laborer  and  colleague,  Mr.  Price,  in 
whose  family  I  dwelt  fifty  years  ago.  The  hymns  which 
were  sung  at  the  Dissenting  meeting-house  at  Southampton 
were  so  little  to  the  taste  of  Mr.  Watts,  that  he  could  not 
forbear  complaining  of  them  to  his  father.  The  father  bade 
him  try  what  he  could  do  to  mend  the  matter.  He  did  so, 
and  had  such  success  in  his  first  essay  that  a  second  hymn 
was  earnestly  desired  of  him,  and  then  a  third  and  fourth, 
etc. ,  till  in  process  of  time  there  was  such  a  number  of  them 
as  to  make  up  a  volume. ' ' 

In  a  letter  to  Cotton  Mather,  of  England,  Dr.  Watts 
stated,  "  It  is  not  a  translation  of  David  I  pretend,  but  an 
imitation  of  him  so  nearly  in  Christian  hymns  that  the  Jew- 
ish Psalmist  may  plainly  appear,  yet  leave  his  Judaism  be- 
hind." 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  propriety  or  impropriety 
of  this  scheme  of  Dr.  Watts,  in  undertaking  his  imitations 
of  the  Psalms,  it  can  certainly  claim  originality.  In  Eng- 
land, Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns  are  extensively  used  by  the 
churches  descending  from  the  early  Puritans.  In  the  Hymn- 
book  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland  are  seventy  selections  from  Dr.  Watts,  and  a  single 
representative  among  the  five  hymns  that  have  long  been 
bound  up  with  the  Psalm-book  of  the  Secession  Scottish 
Church. 

Out  of  twelve  hundred  and  ninety  hymns  in  the  old 
Sabbath  School  Hymn-book,  published  in  the  United  States, 
two  hundred  and  fifty-four  are  from  Watts  ;  of  thirteen 
hundred  and  seventy -four,  in  the  Plymouth  collection,  two 
hundred  and  eighteen  are  from  Watts  ;  in  the  Songs  of  the 
Sanctuary,  by  Dr.  C.  S.  Robinson,  Watts  has  five  hundred 
and  fourteen  out  of  twelve  hundred  and  ninety-three  ;  in  the 
Baptist    collection,    three    hundred  and    one  of    the  eleven 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION,  173 

hundred  and  eighty,  are  from  Watts.  Even  in  the  Hymn- 
book  of  the  Unitarian  body,  Watts  takes  the  lead  of  all 
authors.  A  recent  writer  in  an  English  magazine,  after  an 
examination  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  Hymn-books, 
ascribes  to  Dr.  Watts  the  authorship  of  two-fifths  of  all  the 
Hymns  used  in  the  English-speaking  churches. 

The  criticisms  of  Dr.  Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns  would, 
in  themselves,  fill  a  volume.  The  following  will  represent 
the  views  of  those  who  were  favorable  and  those  adverse  to 
their  use  in  the  Christian  Church  : 

A  century  and  a  half  have  nearly  passed  since  the  publication  of 
Dr.  Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns  ;  yet  nothing  has  appeared  to  dim  their 
luster,  as  yet,  nothing  threatens  to  supersede  them  with  their  doctrinal 
fullness,  their  sacred  fervor,  their  lyric  grandeur,  they  stand  alone,  over- 
topping all  their  fellows.  *  *  *  To  elevate  to  poetic  altitudes  every 
truth  in  Christian  experience  and  revealed  religion,  needs  the  strength 
and  sweep  of  an  eagle's  wing  ;  and  this  is  what  Isaac  Watts  has  done. 
He  has  taken  almost  every  topic  which  exercises  the  understanding  and 
heart  of  the  believer,  and  has  not  only  given  it  a  devotional  aspect,  but 
has  wedded  it  to  immortal  numbers  ;  and,  whilst  there  is  little  to  which 
he  has  not  shown  himself  equal,  there  is  nothing  which  he  has  done  for 
mere  effect.  They  are  naturalized  through  all  the  Anglo-Paxon  world, 
and  next  to  Scri}  tare  itself,  are  the  great  vehicle  of  thought  and  feeling 
*    *    *    A  climbing  boy  was  once  heard  singing  in  a  chimney, 

'  The  sorrows  of  the  mind 

Be  banished  from  this  place, 
Religion  never  was  designed 
To  make  our  pleasure  less  ; ' 

and,  like  King  David's  own  Psalter,  the  same  stanzas  which  cheered  the 
poor  sweep  in  the  chimney,  and  melted  to  tears  the  Northumberland 
peasant,  have  roused  the  devotion  or  uttered  the  raptures  of  ten 
thousand  worshipers  ;  and  there  is  many  a  reader  who,  in  his  experience, 
can  imagine  the  sensation  which  he  shared  in  singing,  when  the  heart 
of  some  solemn  assembly  was  uplifted  as  one  man  : 

'  Come,  let  us  join  one  cheerful  song  ; '  or, 
'  Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun." 

— "  North  British  Review  "  of  August,  1857.) 

"  In  his  Psalms  and  Hymns  (for  they  must  be  classed  together),  he 
has  embraced  a  compass  and  variety  of  subjects,  which  include  and 
illustrate  every  truth  of  revelation,  throw  light  upon  every  secret  move- 
ment of  the  human  heart,  whether  of  sin,  nature  or  grace  ;  and  describe 
every  kind  of  trial,  temptation,  conflict,  doubt,  fear  and  grief,  as  well  as 
the  faith,  hope,  charity,  the  love  of  joy,  peace,  labor  and  patience  of 
the  Christian  in  all  stages  of  his  course  on  earth  ;   together  with  the 


17J:  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

terrors  of  the  Lord,  the  glories  of  the  Redeemer,  and  comforts  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  urge,  allure  and  strengthen  him  by  the  way.  *  *  *  * 
Dr.  Watts'  Hymns  are  full  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God ; 
his  themes,  therefore,  are  as  much  more  illustrious  than  those  of  the 
son  of  Jesse,  who  only  knew  the  honor  and  glory  of  Jehovah,  as  he 
had  seen  them  in  the  sanctuary,  which  was  but  the  shadow  of  the  New 
Testament  Church,  as  the  face  of  Moses,  holding  communion  with  God, 
was  brighter  than  the  veil  he  cast  over  it,  when  conversing  with  his 
countrymen." — James  Montgomery. 

"  We  freely  confess  that,  for  ourselves,  we  consider  the  paraphrase 
of  the  Psalms  by  Dr.  Watts  the  most  defective  part  of  our  Psalmody  ; 
and  only  more  and  more  marvel  that  such  a  miserable  attempt  should 
have  acquired  so  much  reputation." — Dr.  R.  J.  Breckenridge. 

"Dr.  Watts  has  attempted  professedly  to  improve  upon  the  senti- 
ment of  the  very  matter  and  order,  and  by  various  omissions  and  ad- 
ditions, to  fit  the  Psalms  for  Christian  worship.  This  is  unfair.  It 
Pope  had  taken  the  same  license  with  the  poems  of  Homer,  all  the 
amateurs  of  Greek  poetry  in  the  world  would  have  cried,  shame  on  the 
presumptious  intruder  !  But  it  is  a  pious  and  zealous  Christian  that  has 
taken  this  liberty  with  the  songs  of  Zion,  and  almost  the  whole  church 
acquiesces  in  it.  What  would  we  think  of  the  French  poet,  who,  pro- 
posing to  enrich  French  literature  with  a  version  of  the  masterpiece  of 
the  English  muse,  should  mangle  and  transpose  the  torn  limbs  of  the 
Paradise  Lost,  until  Milton  himself  might  meet  his  first-born  on  the 
highway  and  not  recognize  it  ?  And  must  this  literary  butchery  be 
tolerated  because  forsooth  the  victim  is  the  inspired  Psalmist  ?  Why 
should  the  heaven-taught  Bai-d  be  misrepresented  thus?  Let  us 
rather  have  the  songs  of  inspiration  as  God  inspired  them  and  as  nearly 
as  possible  and  consistent  with  the  laws  of  English  versification.  God's 
order  of  thought  is  doubtless  the  best  for  his  Church.  If  any  one  thinks 
he  can  write  better  spiritual  songs  than  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,  let 
him  do  it,  but  let  him  not  dress  the  savory  meat  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared until  all  the  substance  and  savour  are  gone  and  then  present  it  to 
us  as  an  imitation  of  David's  Psalms." — George  Junkin,  D.  D. 

In  1846,  a  cenotaph  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Watts  was 
erected  at  Abney  Park  Cemetery — a  full  length  figure  of 
Dr.  Watts  in  his  ecclesiastical  costume,  nine  feet  in  heio^ht. 
and  standing  on  a  pedestal  of  purest  Portland  stone,  thirteen 
feet  high  and  six  feet  square.  In  his  left  hand  he  is  holding 
a  book  and  two  others  are  open  on  a  seat  on  his  right  side. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  175 

On  the  side  facing  Abney  Chapel,  is  the  following  inscription : 

In  Memory  of 

Isaac  Watte,  D.  D, 

In  testimony  of  the  high  and  lasting  esteem  in  which  his  character 

and  his  writings  were  held  in  the  great  Christian  community  by  whom 

the  English  language  is  spoken.     Of  his  Psalms  and  hymns  it  may  be 

predicted  in  his  own  words: 

"  Ages  unborn  will  make  his  songs 

The  joy  and  labor  of  their  tongues." 

He  was  born  at  Southampton  July  17,  1674, 

and  died  November  25,  1748, 

After  a  residence  of  thirty-six  years  in  the  mansion  of 

Sir  Thos.  Abney,  Bart,  then  standing  on  these 

grounds. 

Erected  bv  public  subscription. 

E.  W.  Bailey,  R.  A. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  many  of  the  Psalms  were 
versified  by  the  three  Wesleys — the  father  and  two  sons. 
But  as  they  did  not  publish  their  Psalms  separately  from  their 
hymns,  they  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  a  place  among  the 
Psalmists.  The  following  testimonial  to  David's  Psalms  by 
the  elder  Wesley  will  be  found  to  possess  interest: 

1.  "Has  David's  Christ  to  come  foreshadowed? 

Can  Christians  then  aspire 
To  mend  the  harmony  that  flowed 
From  his  poetic  lyre  ? 

2.  How  curious  are  their  wits  and  vain 

Their  erring  zeal,  how  bold. 
Who  durst  with  meaner  dross  profane 
His  purity  of  God  ! 

3.  His  Psalms  unchanged  the  saints  employ, 

Unchanged  our  God  applies; 
They  suit  the  apostles  in  their  joy, 
The  Saviour  when  he  dies. 

4.  Let  David's  prose  unaltered  lays 

Transmit  through  ages  down 
To  thee,  0  David's  Son  !  our  praise  ! 
To  thee,  0  David's  Son  ! 

5.  Till  judgment  calls  the  seraph  throng 

To  join  the  human  choir. 
And  God  who  gave  the  ancient  one 
The  new  one  to  inspire. 

Joseph  Addison,  so  well  known  by  his  literary  labors, 
planned  a  paraphrastic  version  of  the  Psalms  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  plan  that  was  never  fully 
carried  out. 


176 


DAVID'S  HARP  IN  SONG  AND   STORY. 


From  his  pen  came  that  beautiful  rendering  of  the 
Twenty-third  Psalm,  beginning: 

"The  Lord  my  pasture  shall  prepare." 
To  him  also  belongs  that  piece  of  poetry  which  many  a 
school  boy  has  declaimed,  and  which  is  only  a  paraphrase  of 
the  Nineteenth  Psalm: 

"The  spacious  firmament  on  high 
With  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky,"  etc. 

This  latter  paraphrase,  with  the  hymns  of  the  same 
author  beginning: 

"When  all  thy  mercies,  0  my  God," 
and 

"When  rising  from  the  bed  of  death," 
compose  three  of  the  five  hymns  of  the  Scottish  Psalm-book. 

Of  the  many  other  versifyers  of  the  Psalms  in  the 
last  and  in  the  present  centuries,  the  name  of  James  Mont- 
gomery may  well  be  added  here.  Montgomery  is  known 
principally  by  his  hymns,  but  his  beautiful  renderings  of 
some  of  the  Psalms  have  contributed  much  in  o-ainini::  him 
the  reputation  of  being  one  of  England's  most  popular  sa- 
cred poets.  His  versions  the  author  calls  "imitations,'^ 
having  modeled  them  after  the  design  of  Dr.  Watts,  yet  do 
they  carry  with  them  the  idea  of  the  original,  and  so  im- 
press the  reader  with  the  fact  of  their  having  sprung  from 
the  rich  fountain  of  God's  Word.  These  "imitations" 
were  sixty-seven  in  number,  and  were  printed  in  1822  un- 
der the  title  "Songs  of  Zion." 

Even  Lord  Byron  turned  aside  from  his  other  poetic 
inspirations  long  enough  to  have  his  muse  sing  for  us  his  in- 
comparably beautiful  rendering  of  Psalm  One  hundred  and 
thirty  seven: 

"  In  the  valley  of  waters  we  wept  o'er  the  day 
When  the  host  of  the  stranger  made  Salem  his  prey; 
And  our  heads  on  our  bosoms  all  droopingly  lay, 
And  our  hearts  were  so  full  of  the  land  far  away. 

"  The  song  they  demanded  in  vain — it  lay  still 
In  our  souls  as  the  wind  that  hath  died  on  the  hill. 
They  called  for  the  haip,  but  our  blood  they  would  spill 
Ere  our  right  hands  shall  teach  them  one  tone  of  their  skill. 

"  All  stringlessly  hung  on  the  willow's  sad  tree, 
As  dead  as  her  dead  leaf  those  mute  harps  must  be. 
Our  hands  may  be  fettered,  our  tears  still  are  free, 
For  our  God  and  our  glory,  and  ^ioa  for  thee." 


CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Psalms  in  the  Scottish  Keformed  Church. 

Scotland  can  claim  but  little  notice  from  her  versifiers 
of  the  Psalms.  The  sacred  poets  who  furnished  her  songs 
were  mostly  of  foreign  birth.  Yet  in  a  history  of  the  Psalms 
no  people,  next  to  the  Jews,  can  hold  a  more  prominent 
place  than  the  Scotch.  Psalm-singing  has  been  a  vital  ele- 
ment in  their  entire  history  from  the  days  of  the  Culdees  to 
the  present  moment,  and  the  zeal  and  prejudice  that  yet  re- 
main for  it,  bid  fair  for  continuing  David  as  the  perpetual 
sovereign  of  her  sacred  melodies. 

In  Scotch  history  we  look  in  vain  for  even  a  fraction  of 
that  enthusiasm  of  Psalmody  that  awakened  the  continent 
of  Europe  at  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Enthu- 
siasm is  not  a  trait  in  the  Scotch  character.  A  Scotchman 
is  a  model  of  religious  dignity;  and  extreme  devotion  is  in 
his  case  marked  with  extreme  reserve.  The  Psalm- singing 
of  France  and  the  Low  Countries  could  not  fully  repeat 
itself  among  the  Highlands,  where  impulse  had  settled 
within  the  impassable  boundary  of  propriety.  Still  none, 
more  than  the  Scotch,  were  true  to  all  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation.  They  believed,  with  the  Cal- 
vinists  of  Switzerland  and  France,  that  all  worship  should 
be  conformed  rigidly  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  prac- 
tices of  the  primitive  disciples.  AVith  this  fundamental  of 
Calvinism,  they  without  hesitation  embraced  the  Genevan 
basis  of  praise — the  Psalms  of  the  Bible;  and  when  the 
Psalms  became  the  material  of  sacred  song  for  one  Scotch- 
man, they  became  the  medium  of  praise  for  all  Scotchmen, 
in  all  times. 

In  France,  Switzerland  and  the  Netherlands,  the  fervor 
of  Psalm-singing  gradualh^  died  away,  and  the  Psalms  them- 
selves were  laid  aside;  but  in  Scotland  are  heard  the  same 
inspired  strains,  and  in  the  same  solemn  yet  devout  utter- 
ance as  of  three  hundred  years  ago.     And  in  America,  the 

(177) 


1Y8  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

only  denominations  that  pretend  to  adopt  a  full  and  faithful 
rendering  of  the  Psalms  are  those  in  which  predommate  the 
element  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  and  North  Ireland. 

For  the  history  of  Scotch  Psalmody  we  must  leave  the 
streets  and  highways  and  go  into  the  religious  assemblies  and 
into  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants.  Sometimes  when  perse- 
cution was  abroad  in  the  land,  these  assemblies  were  gath- 
ered amid  the  friendly  forests,  or  under  the  shades  of  moun- 
tain rocks;  but  whether  in  the  home  sanctuary,  or  in  these 
retreats,  might  ever  be  heard  the  slow  yet  earnest  singing  of 
David's  Psalms.  There  is  scarcely  a  den  or  a  forest  in  all 
the  Highlands  which  some  faithful  baud  has  not  sanctihed  by 
singing  God's  praise  in  the  songs  of  his  early  Church. 

In  Blackburn's  memoirs  is  given  a  description  of  a  Cov- 
enanter communion  in  1674,  and  a  reference  to  their  Psalm- 
ody :  ' '  The  tables  were  served  by  some  gentlemen  and  per- 
sons of  the  greatest  deportment.  None  were  admitted  with- 
out tokens  as  usual,  which  were  distributed  on  Saturday, 
but  only  to  such  as  were  known  to  some  of  the  ministers  or 
persons  of  trust,  to  be  free  from  public  scandals.  All  the 
reofular  forms  were  o^one  throuoh;  the  communicants  entered 
at  one  end  of  the  table  and  returned  at  the  other,  a  way  being 
kept  clear  to  take  their  seats  on  the  hill's  sides.  The  com- 
munion was  peaceably  concluded,  all  the  people  heartily 
offering  up  their  gratitude,  and  singing  rose  to  the  Rock  of 
their  salvation.  It  was  pleasant,  as  the  night  fell,  to  hear 
their  melody  swelling  in  full  unison  along  the  hill,  the  whole 
congregation  joining  with  one  accord  and  praising  God  with 
voice  of  Psalms. ' ' 

The  tune  most  frequently  used  on  such  occasions  was 
the  well-known  "Martyrs,"  which,  in  some  parts  of  Scot- 
land has  been  perpetuated  in  the  rude  rhyme: 

'*  This  was  the  tune  the  Martyrs  sang, 
When  they  were  gaen  to  die, 
Wlien  at  the  gallows  tree  they  stood 
Their  God  to  glorify." 

A  distinguishing  feature  of  Scotch  religion  has  been 
that  of  family  worship,  in  which,  morning  and  evening,  the 
Psalms  were  sung,  the  Bible  read,  and  prayer  offered. 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      179 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  observes  a  -writer,  "you 
could  not  for  a  great  part  of  the  country  have  lodged  in  a 
family  where  the  Lord  was  not  worshiped  in  reading  Scrip- 
ture, singing  Psalms,  and  prayers." 

This  prevalence  of  family  worship  has  not  passed  unno- 
ticed b}^  the  author  of  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  who  in 
his  picture  of  a  Scotchman's  after-supper  fireside,  says: 

"  The  cheerfu'  supper  done,  wi'  serious  face, 
They  round  the  ingle*  form  a  circle  wide. 

The  Sire  turns  o'er  with  patriarchal  grace 
The  big  Ha'  Bible,  once  his  father's  pride: 

His  bonnet  rev'rently  is  laid  aside, 

His  lyart  haffets  wearin'  thin  and  bare, 

Those  streams  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide, 
He  walest  a  portion  with  judicious  care, 
And  'Let  us  worship  God,'  he  says  with  solemn  air. 

i<  They  chant  their  artless  notes  in  simple  guise  ; 

They  time  their  hearts,  by  far  the  noblest  aim. 
Perhaps  Dundee's  wild,  warbling  measures  rise; 

Or  plaintive  Martyr's  worthy  o'  the  name; 
Or  Noble  Elgin  beets  the  heav'nward  flame; 

The  sweetest  far  o'  Scotia's  holy  lays; 
Compared  with  these,  Italian  trills  are  tame. 

The  tickled  ears  no  heartfelt  raptures  raise, 

Nae  unison  hae  they  with  our  Creator's  praise." 

In  the  Scotch  families  every  child  was  taught  to  commit 
the  Psalms  to  memory;  and  many  a  time,  when  a  son  or 
daughter  was  given  away  in  marriage,  the  solemnities  were 
not  thought  complete  till  the  whole  household  and  guests 
would  join  in  the  Psalm: 

"  0  what  a  happy  thing  it  is, 
And  joyful  for  to  see, 
Brethren  to  dwell  together  in 
Friendship  and  unity." 

In  both  the  Scotch  and  English  armies  Psalmody  was 
customary  in  most  of  the  regiments;  and  sometimes  when 
these  armies  of  the  two  nationalities  were  lying  encamped 
near  each  other,  awaiting  the  conflict,  there  might  be  heard  a 
melody  of  the  same  Psalm  sung  to  the  same  tune.  It  has 
been  remarked  that  in  the  war  between  England  and  Scot- 
land, in  the  days  of  King  Charles,  when  the  English  soldiers 
"  saw  the  written  Covenant  floating  on  the  Scotch  banner, 
and  beheld  at  sunrise,  the  whole  camp  ringing  with  Psalm- 


180  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

singing  and  prayers,  they  cursed  the  impious  war  in  which 
they  were  engaged,  and  felt  they  were  lighting  against  their 
brethren  and  their  God. ' ' 

A  Presbyterian  camp  in  those  days  must  have  presented 
an  interesting  scene.  "Had  you  lent  your  ear,"  says 
Baillie,  "and  heard  in  the  tents  the  sound  of  some  singing 
Psalms,  some  praying,  some  reading  the  Scriptures,  you 
would  have  been  refreshed.  I  found  the  favor  of  God 
shining  upon  me  ;  and  a  sweet,  meek,  humlile,  yet  strong 
and  vehement  spirit,  leading  me  all  along." 

Of  the  same  occasion  referred  to  by  Baillie,  Living- 
ston, a  chaplain,  remarks  :  "  It  is  refreshful  to  remark  that 
after  we  came  to  our  quarters  at  night,  there  was  nothing  to 
be  heard  through  the  whole  army  bat  singing  of  Psalms, 
prayer,  and  reading  of  Scripture  by  the  soldiers  in  their 
several  tents. ' ' 

An  incident  connected  with  the  burial  of  Hampden,  one 
of  the  Roundheads,  who  was  killed  on  Chalgrave  lield  in 
one  of  the  battles  with  the  soldiers  of  Charles,  will  illustrate 
the  devotion  of  the  soldiery  and  their  customs  of  Psalmody 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  When  Hampden 
was  carried  to  his  grave,  his  comrades  in  war  followed  in 
procession,  with  arms  reversed,  their  heads  uncovered,  sing- 
ing as  they  marched,  the  Ninetieth  Psalm  from  the  version 
of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  : 

"  Thou,  Lord,  liast  been  our  pure  defense, 
Our  place  of  ease  and  rest, 
In  all  times  past,  yea,  so  long  since 
As  cannot  be  exprest. 
*  ******** 

Thou  grindest  man  through  grief  and  pain 

To  dust,  or  clay,  and  then, 
Thou  unto  them  dost  say  again, 

Return  ye  sons  of  men,"  et<". 

Keturning  from  the  burial,  the  mourners  again  sang  the 
Forty-third  Psalm  : 

Judge  and  avenge  my  cause,  0  Lord, 

From  them  that  evil  be, 
From  wicked  and  deceitful  men, 

O  Loid  deliver  me. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      181 

For  of  my  strength,  thou  art  the  God, 

Why  put'st  thou  me  thee  fro  ; 
And  why  walk  I  so  heavily, 

Oppressed  with  my  foe." 

The  author  of  "  Helen  of  the  Glen,"  thus  alludes  to 
the  devotion  of  the  Scotch  soldiers  under  Cameron,  in  the 
bloody  days  of  Claverhouse  : 

"  The  lyart  veteran  heard  the  word  of  God 
By  Cameron  thundered,  or  by  Renwick  poured 
In  gentle  streams  ;  then  rose  the  song  ;  the  loud 
Acclaim  of  praise  ;  the  wheeling  plover  ceased 
Her  plaint ;  the  solitary  place  was  glad, 
And  on  the  distant  cavins,  the  watcher's  ear 
Caught  doubtfully,  at  times,  the  breeze-borne  note." 

The  Scotch,  like  the  Christians  in  the  days  of  Julian 
the  Apostate,  sometimes  made  use  of  their  Psalms  to  irritate 
their  foes.  It  is  related  of  a  Scotch  minister  that  he 
preached  ''boldly  before  King  Charles,  December  16,  1616, 
at  Newcastle,  and  after  his  sermon,  called  for  the  Fifty- 
second  Psalm,  which  began, 

"Why  dost  thou,  tyrant,  boast  thyself, 
Thy  wicked  works  to  praise." 

His  Majesty  thereupon  stood  up  and  called  for  the  Fifty- 
sixth  Psalm,  which  begins, 

"  Have  mercy,  Lord,  on  me  I  pray, 
For  men  would  me  devour." 

The  people  waived  the  minister's  Psalm  and  sung  that 
which  the  King  called  for. ' ' 

The  use  of  metrical  Psalms,  within  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  must  have  begun  in  Scotland,  almost  as  early 
as  in  the  Continent.  This  appears  from  a  document  drawn 
up  by  the  English  Exiles  at  Frankfort  in  1550,  in  which  it 
is  stated  that  "  the  people  do  singe  a  Psalme  in  meeter,  in  a 
plain  tune,  as  was,  and  is  accustomed  in  the  French,  Dutch, 
Italian,  Spanish  and  Scottische  churches." 

Dalzell,  in  his  "  Cursory  Kemarks, "  states  that  there 
was  a  Scotch  version  early.  The  two  lines  quoted  from 
"Wishart  by  Knox,  answer  to  the  beginning  of  the  second 
stanza  of  the  Fifty-first  Psalm  inserted  among  Scottish 
poems  of  the  sixteenth  century.     The  first  distinct  record  of 


182  David's  harp  in  song  and  stouy. 

the  existence  of  metrical  Psalms  and  of  Psalm-sinffingf 
among  the  Scotch  is  in  connection  with  the  apprehension  of 
the  Martyr  Wishart  in  1544.  The  night  in  which  he  was 
arrested  he  was  spending  in  the  house  of  the  Laird  of  Orm- 
istown  ;  the  account  of  his  devotional  conduct  there,  and  of 
his  calling  for  the  singing  of  a  Pt^alm,  is  thus  given  in  the 
quaint  language  of  that  early  day  :  ' '  Maister  George, 
having  to  accumpanie  him,  the  Laird  of  Ormistown,  Johne 
Sandielands,  of  Calder  Younger,  the  Laird  of  Brounstowu 
and  utheris,  with  thair  servands,  past  upoun  their  Fute  (for 
it  was  a  vehement  Frost)  to  Ormistown.  Efter  supper  he 
held  a  comfortabill  Purpois  of  the  Deith  of  Godis  chosen 
children,  and  merrilie  said,  me  thinks  that  I  desyer  eirnestlie 
to  sleep  ;  and  thairwith  he  said  we'll  sing  ane  Psalme  ;  and 
sae  he  appointed  the  fyftie  ane  Psalme,  quhilk  was  put  in 
Scotis  meiter  and  began  thus  :  '  Have  mercy  one  me  now, 
guide  Lord, '  etc. ' ' 

According  to  Coverdale  this  Psalm  was  one  of  the 
"Dundee  Psalms,"  composed  by  the  brothers  John  and 
Robert  Wedderburn,  of  Dundee. 

Of  the  Wedderburn  family,  but  little  is  known  ;  the 
father  was  a  merchant  of  Dundee,  and  the  three  brothers, 
John,  Robert  and  James,  were  friends  to  the  Reformation. 

From  an  "original  copie"  of  the  Dundee  Psalms, 
printed  in  1621  and  now  in  the  Advocates'  Library  in  Edin- 
burgh, we  learn  that  only  twenty  Psalms  were  versified  by 
John  and  Robert  Wedderburn.  With  the  Psalms  were 
published  a  number  of  doctrinal  and  devotional  pieces,  also 
some  satirical  poems  on  the  papacy.  These  Psalms  and 
Spiritual  Songs  were  published  without  tunes,  but  in  metres 
evidently  suited  for  the  music  of  the  continent.  John  Wed- 
derburn had  spent  some  time  in  Germany  under  the  in- 
struction of  Luther  and  Melancthon,  from  whom  he  learned 
not  only  the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  but  of  the  Ger- 
man Psalmody,  and  it  was  what  he  carried  with  him  from 
his  visit  that  no  doubt  influenced  him  in  determining  the 
metres  of  his  Psalms.  In  the  Dundee  Psalms  were  nine  di- 
versities of  metres,  but  scarcely  an  instance  of  the  common 
metre. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      183 

Psalm  LI. — Miserere  Mei,  Deus. 

Sung  by  AVishart  in  the  Castle  of  Ornuston  on  the  night 
before  his  apprehension. 

"DUNDEE  PSALM-BOOK." 

Have  mercie  on  me,  God  of  might. 

Of  mercie,  Lord  and  King; 
For  thy  mercie  is  set  full  right 

About  all  eirdly  thing; 
Therefore  I  cry  baith  day  and  night 

And  with  my  hert  sail  sing, 
To  thy  mercie  with  thee  will  I  go. 

Et  secundum  multitudinem; 
Gude  Lord,  I  knaw  my  wickedness, 

Contrair  to  thy  command, 
Eebelland  ay  with  cnielnes 

And  led  me  in  ane  band 
Lo  satham  quha  is  merciles; 

Zit  Lord,  heir  my  cry  and 
To  thy  mercie  with  thee  will  I  go. 

Quhat  king  can  tell  the  multitude, 

Lord,  if  thy  greit  mercie 
Sen  sinners  hes  thy  celsitude 

Resisted  cruellie  ? 
Zit  na  sinner  will  thou  seclude, 

That  this  will  cry  to  thee, 
To  thy  mercie  with  thee  will  I  go. 

Tibi  soli  peccavi; 
Only  to  thee  did  I  offend. 

And  me  kill  euill  lies  done. 
Throw  quhilks  appeirandly  defense 

To  me  is  nane  aboue; 
Thus  men  will  judge  thy  just  vengeance 

Hes  put  me  from  thy  throne, 
Zit  to  thy  mercie  with  thee  will  I  go. 

The  most  illustrious  of  all  the  Scotch  Psalmists  was 
Georo;e  Buchanan.  Buchanan  })eo;an  the  rendering  of  the 
Psalms  into  Latin  verse  while  in  his  prison  cell  at  Coimbra, 
in  Portugal,  1548.     Knox  says  of  him: 

"Mr.  Geo.  Buchanan  remains  alive  to  this  day,  in  the  year  of  God 
1566  years,  to  the  glory  of  God,  to  the  great  honour  of  this  natioun,  and 
to  the  comfort  of  thame  that  delyte  in  letters  and  vertew.  That  singu- 
lare  work  of  David's  Psalms  in  Latin  metere  and  poesie,  besyde  many 
other,  can  witness  the  rare  graces  of  God  gevin  to  that  man." 

The  first  complete  edition  of  Buchanan's  Psalms  was  published  by 


184  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

his  nephew,  Alexander  Morrison,  the  date  being  omitted.  A  second 
edition  appeared  in  1566.  Another  in  1567,  entitled  Paraphrasis  Psal- 
morum  Davidis  Poetica. 

Buchanan's  Psalms  have  called  forth  high  encomiums  from  the 
best  critics,  a  few  of  which  inserted  may  exhibit  the  estimation  in 
which  they  have  already  been  held  by  those  familiar  with  the  Latin 
tongue: 

"His  immortal  paraphrase  of  the  Psalms  doth  show  that  neither  the 
constraint  of  limited  matter,  the  darkness  of  expression  nor  the  frequent 
return  of  the  same  or  like  phrases  could  confuse  or  exhaust  that  vast 
genius." — Crawford's  History  of  the  House  of  Este. 

"His  masterpiece  is  his  paraphrase  upon  the  Psalms,  in  which  he 
outdid  the  most  famous  poets  among  the  French  and  Italians." — Teis- 
sier. 

"Buchanan  executed  this  translation  with  such  inimitable  sweetness 
and  elegancy  that  this  version  of  the  Psalms  will  be  esteemed  as  long  as 
the  world  endures,  or  men  have  any  relish  for  poetry." — Mackenzie. 

"It  is  generally  admitted  that  to  Scotland  belongs  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing produced  the  best  Latin  version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms.  At  a  time 
when  literature  was  far  from  common  in  Europe,  Buchanan,  then  a  pris- 
oner in  a  foreign  land,  produced  a  work  which  has  immortalized  his 
name.  .  .  .  There  are  twenty-nine  different  kinds  of  measure  in  the 
work,  in  all  of  which  he  shows  how  completely  he  was  master  of  the 
varied  metres  of  Latin  verse.  In  many  of  the  iPsalms  he  has  succeeded 
to  admiration." — Orme. 

Though  other  Latin  versifiers  obtained  considerable 
commendation  for  their  efforts,  Buchanan  still  held  the  prin- 
cipal place  in  the  estimation  of  Scotch  critics.  Before  the 
close  of  the  century  in  which  he  was  born,  his  Psalms  had 
been  included  as  part  of  the  education  given  in  the  High 
Schools  of  Scotland.  This  appears  from  the  minutes  of  the 
town  council  of  Edinburgh,  of  July  21,  1598,  which  con- 
tain the  earliest  regulations  of  the  High  School  of  that  city. 
The  record  runs,  ' '  The  first  class  and  regent  thairof  sail 
teache  the  first  and  second  rudiments  of  Dumbar  with  the 
Colloques  of  Corderius;  and  on  Sonday  Cathechesis  Palatin- 
atus.  The  second  regent  sail  teache  the  rules  of  the  first 
])art  of  Pelisso  with  Cicerois  familiar  epistilles.  The  third 
regent  sail  teache  the  second  part  of  Pelisso  with  the  sup- 
plement of  Erasmus  Sintaxis  Terence,  the  Metamorphosis 
of  Ouid  with  Buquhannanis  Psalms  on  Sonday.  The  ferd 
sail  teache  the  third  part  of  Pelisso  with  Buquhannanis  Pro- 
sodia  .  .  .  and  the  heroick  Psalmes  of  Buquhannanis  on 
Sonday." 

In  those  early  days,  while   the  Latin  was  yet  a  living 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH,      185 

lanffuasre  amono:  the  educated,  Buchanan's  Psalms  were 
studied  with  all  the  zeal  and  pleasure  with  which  the  anti- 
quarian now  pours  over  Homer,  or  the  poet  over  Paradise 
Lost.  They  frequently  afforded  to  the  persecuted  and  the 
banished  that  comfort  and  pastime  afterward  afforded  the 
Scotch  Covenanters  by  their  English  versions.  So  highly 
were  they  prized  by  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  that  he  committed 
them  to  memory;  and,  while  he  was  self-incarcerated  in  a 
subterranean  vault  in  Polwarth  churchyard,  a  refugee  from 
persecution,  and  without  light  to  cheer  the  gloom  of  his 
sepulchral  retreat,  he  nerved  himself  and  sustained  his  cour- 
age by  these  Latin  lyrics  of  the  Scotch  Bard.  So  thoroughly 
were  they  impressed  upon  his  memory,  that  he  could  at  the 
day  of  his  death  repeat  every  Psalm  without  so  much  as 
missing  a  word. 

Buchanan's  Psalms  were  among  the  earliest  poetic  com- 
positions that  inspired  the  muse  of  Dr.  Isaac  Watts.  While 
yet  a  school- boy,  he  studied  them  with  admiration,  and 
through  them  contracted  a  love  for  the  Psalms  themselves 
that  afterwards  led  to  his  own  imitations. 

The  high-sounding  lyrics  of  Casimir  Sarbiewski  seem 
to  have  borrowed  their  inspiration  from  the  same  source. 
Casimir  has  left  the  followinjj  tribute  to  the  genius  of  Bu- 
chanan: 

"  See  from  the  Caledonian  shore, 
Witli  blooming  laurels  covered  o'er, 

Buchanan  march  along  ! 
Hail  honored  heir  of  David's  lyre, 
Thou  full-grown  image  of  thy  Sire, 

And  hail  thy  matchless  song  !" 

For  the  pastime  of  those  who  still  preserve  a  knowledge 
of  the  Latin  they  learned  at  college,  a  selection  from  Bu- 
chanan is  here  appended. 

PSALM  XXIII. 

GEOKGE   BUCHANAN. 

Quid  frustra  rabidi  me  petitis  canes? 
Livor  propositum  cur  premis  improbum? 
Sicut  pastor  ovem,  me  dominus  regit; 
Nil  decritpenitus  mihi. 


186  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Per  campi  vividis  mitia  pabula, 
Que  veris  teneri  pingit  amoenitas, 
Nunc  pascor  placide;  nunc  saturum  latu3 
Fessus  molliter  explico. 

Purae  rivus  aquee  leniter  astrepens 
Membris  restituit  robora  lanquidis, 
Et  blando  recreat  somite  spiritus 
Solis  sub  pace  toi-rida. 

Saltus  quum  peteret  mens  vaga  devios, 
Errorum  teneras  illecebras  sequens, 
Retraxit  miserans  denero  me  bonus 
Pastor  justitise  in  viam. 

Nee  si  per  trepidas  luctifica  manu 
Intentet  tenebras  mors  mihi  vulnera, 
Formidem  duce  te  pergere;  me  pledo 
Securum  facies  tuo. 

Tu  mensas  epulis  accumulas,  merum 
Tu  plenis  pateris  sufficis,  et  caput 
Unguento  exhilaras:  conficit  semulos, 
Dum  spectant,  dolor  anxius. 

Me  nunquam  bonitas  destituet  tua 
Prosususque  bonis  perpetuo  favor; 
Et  non  sollicitse  longa  domi  tuse 
Vitae  tempora  transligam. 

In  Scotland  the  Psalms  of  the  Wedderburn  brothers 
were  sung  in  the  congregations  and  private  families  till  they 
were  supplemented  by  the  version  commonly  known  as 
that  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  This  substitution  of  the 
English  renderings  must  have  taken  place  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent previous  to  the  year  1555,  for  in  this  year  Elizabeth 
Adamson,  on  her  death  bed,  sang  a  Psalm  which  has  been 
identified  as  one  of  Sternhold 's.  The  versions  sung  at  this 
early  date  must  have  been  from  the  edition  of  1551,  which 
contained  the  thirty-seven  of  Sternhold  and  the  seven  of 
John  Hopkins.  It  i-^  probable  that  the  Scotch  immediately 
adopted  the  first  issue  of  Sternhold  in  1519,  which  may  be 
taken  as  the  date  at  which  began  the  decline  of  the  Dundee 
Psalms. 

When  the  Genevan  edition,  containing  eighty-seven 
Psalms,  was  published,  it,  with  the  Book  of  Order,  was  im- 
mediately adopted  by  the  Scotch  Church.  From  Calder- 
wood  we  learn  that  "before  the  Confession  of  Faith  was 
formed  (1560)  and  ratified  in  Parliament,  and  the  Book  of 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      187 

Discipline  contrived,  the  Reformed  Kirk  within  the  realme 
had  that  book,  which  was  prefixed  to  the  Psalms  in  meeter, 
for  their  direction  in  discipline,  the  Book  of  Common  Or- 
der or  the  Order  of  Geneva;  whereby  is  meant  the  Order  of 
the  English  Kirk  of  Geneva  where  Mr.  Knox  had  been 
some  time  minister. ' ' 

The  first  Book  of  Discipline,  adopted  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland  at  its  first  Assembly  in  156u,  makes  express  men- 
tion of  "Our  Book  of  Common  Order"  having  been  used  in 
some  of  our  churches  previous  to  that  period. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  second  Scotch  Assembly,  which 
was  held  in  1561,  the  attention  of  the  delegates  was  turned 
to  the  preparation  of  a  new  Psalter.  This  action  was  called 
forth  by  the  English  Church  binding  up,  with  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  the  Genevan  edition  of  the  Psalms,  pub- 
lished in  1561.  The  Scottish  Reformers  had  little  relish  for 
the  Liturgy  of  a  semi-papal  body  thrusting  itself  into  their 
families  and  worshiping  assemblies  through  its  association 
with  their  metrical  Psalms,  and  so  determined  to  have  their 
Psalter  issued  to  suit  themselves. 

The  preliminary  steps  toward  an  Edinburgh  edition  of 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins  were  taken  in  1561.  In  December 
of  this  year  "the  kirk  lent  Robert  Lepruik  or  Lekprevic, 
printer,  twa  hundred  pounds  (Scots)  to  help  to  buy  irons, 
ink  and  paper,  and  to  fee  craftsmen  to  print  the  Psalms. ' ' 
In  1664  the  work  was  completed,  and  was  published  by 
Lepruik  with  the  title:  "The  forme  of  prayers  and  minis- 
tration of  the  sacraments,  etc.,  used  in  the  English  Church 
of  Geneva,  approved  and  received  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. Whereunto  that  was  in  the  former  Bookes  are  added 
sondrie  other  prayers,  with  the  whole  Psalms  of  David  in 
English  metre." 

The  Scotch,  in  preparing  their  Psalm-book,  acted  inde- 
pendently of  the  English  Church.  Instead  of  accepting  the 
work  of  Sternhold,  Hopkins  and  others,  as  it  was  issued  and 
used  in  England,  they  proceeded  to  make  such  modifications 
as  would  best  suit  their  peculiar  tastes.  The  eighty-seven 
Psalms  published  by  the  Genevan  exiles  were  retained  en- 
tire.     Of  the  new  Psalms  composed  by  Hopkins,  &c.,  and 


188  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

adopted  in  England,  forty-two  were  selected,  but  not  adopted 
till  alter  numerous,  and,  in  many  instances,  very  extensive 
alterations  were  made.  The  work  was  completed  by  select- 
ing twenty-one  Psalms  of  Scotch  origin  by  Robert  Pont  and 
John  Craig,  the  colleague  of  Knox.  The  Psalms  in  which 
the  Scottish  version  differed  from  the  English  numbered 
forty-one,  besides  numerous  variations  in  words,  lines  and 
entire  verses. 

In  this  edition  Scotland  claims  only  thirty-six — some 
say  fortj^-six^ — those  by  Kethe,  who  spent  most  of  his  life  in 
England,  being  included.  Thus  was  Scotland  indebted  prin- 
cipally to  England  for  her  first  regularly  authorized  Psalm- 
book.  Dr.  Lee  observes  of  this  and  all  other  versions  pre- 
pared for  the  use  of  the  Scottish  Church  previous  to  1640, 
that  "all  the  editions  of  the  Psalms  printed  for  the  use  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  before  1640,  with  the  exception  of 
King  James',  were  in  general  taken  from  the  version  by 
Thomas  Sternhold  and  other  English  authors,  not  above  one- 
tenth  of  the  number  having  been  versified  by  divines  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland." 

The  versifyers,  who  were  connected  with  the  history  of 
the  Scotch  Psalm-book,  but  not  with  that  of  England,  were 
Kobert  Pont,  and  John  Craig,  the  former  of  whom  versified 
six  Psalms,  and  the  latter  fifteen. 

In  December  of  1564,  when  the  Scottish  Psalter  was 
completed,  the  General  Assembly,  to  further  the  matter  of 
Psalmody,  ordained  "That  everie  minister,  exorter  and 
reader  shall  have  one  of  the  Psalme  Bookes  latelie  printed 
in  Edinburgh,  and  use  the  order  therein  contained  in  prayers, 
marriage  and  ministration  of  the  Sacraments. ' ' 

Ten  years  later,  in  1574,  the  Scotch  Parliament  enacted 
"That  all  gentlemen,  house  holders,  and  others  worth  three 
hundred  marks,  of  yearly  rent,  and  every  yeoman  and 
burgess  with  five  hundred  pounds,  should  have  a  Bible  and 
Psalm-booke  in  vulgar  lanffuasre  in  thair  hous  for  the  better 
instruction  of  thame  selffis  and  yair  families  in  the  knowledge 
of  God,  under  pain  of  ten  pounds. ' ' 

In  January,  1580,  His  Majesty,  King  of  Scotland,  ap- 
pointed "  Johne  Williamson  Burgess  of  Edr.,   his   general 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH    REFORMED  CHURCH.      189 

sercheour  throiichout  ye  haill  boundis  of  this  his  hienes 
realme  to  that  effect,"  giving  him  power  to  visit  the  houses 
of  such  as  are  described  in  the  act  of  Parliament,  "  and  to 
requyre  the  sicht  of  thair  Bybill  and  Psalm-buik  gif  thai 
ony  hane  to  be  markit  with  their  owin  name  of  the  said  John 
or  his  deputtis  hand  wryte,  for  eschewing  of  fraudful  and 
deceavabill  dealing  in  that  behalf  ;  and  if  they  have  none  to 
exact  the  penalty." — Record  of  Privy  seal,  vol.  46,  fol.  129. 

The  Scottish  Psalter  of  1564  continued  in  authorized 
use  in  Scotland  till  the  adoption  of  what  is  commonly  called 
Rouse's  version  in  1650. 

Several  editions  of  the  Scotch  Psalm-book  were  pub- 
lished in  Holland  for  the  benefit  of  the  Scotch  congregations 
in  that  country,  and  it  continued  to  be  used  as  the  only 
version  there  until  some  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  new 
version  in  Scotland. 

For  a  period  of  almost  forty  years,  the  Scottish  Kirk 
seems  to  have  paid  no  further  attention  to  the  modifying  of 
her  Psalmody.  The  old  version  had  gradually  grown  dear 
to  the  people,  and  there  appeared  to  be  no  need  for  a  change. 
About  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  however,  certain 
errors  in  the  translations  and  vulgarisms  in  the  metrical 
forms  of  the  authorized  Psalms  began  to  be  criticised  ;  soon 
followed  the  conviction  that  the  old  was  not  what  it  should 
be,  and  a  revision  was  finally  proposed.  Measures  to  pro- 
cure this  revision  were  taken  in  1601,  by  the  appointment 
of  Robert  Pont  to  perform  the  task.  This  appears  from  a 
record  made  by  Calderwood.  ' '  In  the  last  session  it  w  as 
meaned  by  sundrie  of  the  brethren  that  there  are  sundrie 
errours  in  the  vulgar  translation  of  the  Bible  and  of  the 
Psalms  in  meeter,  which  required  correcting  ;  also,  that  there 
were  sundrie  prayers  in  the  Psalme  Book  that  were  not  con- 
venient for  the  time.  It  was  therefore  concluded  that  for 
translation  of  the  Bible,  every  one  of  the  Brethren,  who  had 
greatest  skill  in  the  languages,  employ  their  travels  in 
sundrie  parts  of  the  vulgar  translation  of  the  Bible,  which 
need  to  be  amended  and  to  confer  the  same  together  at  the 
next  Assemblie.  As  for  the  translation  of  the  Psalms  in 
meeter,  it  was  ordained  that  the   same  be  revised   by  Mr. 


190  David's  hakp  in  song  and  story. 

Robert  Pont  and  that  his  travels  be  revised  at  the  next 
Assemblie. "  The  movement  for  a  revision  of  both  the 
Bible  and  the  Psalm-book  was  made  by  Kinp:  James  I. ;  a 
fact  which  alone  may  have  influenced  the  Assembly  to  ap- 
point the  revision  on  that  occasion.  The  King  at  that  time 
is  said  to  have  proposed  not  only  a  correction  of  the  old 
version,  but  the  formation  of  a  new  one. 

As  no  further  notice  is  taken  of  the  action  of  the 
Assembly  of  1601,  it  is  presumed  that  the  matter  of  re- 
vision was  quietly  dropped. 

The  proposition  of  James  I.  for  a  new  version  of  the 
Psalms  was  probably  a  step  towards  his  assuming  himself 
the  dignity  of  a  Psalmist ;  James  did,  after  his  accession  to 
the  throne,  undertake  a  version  of  the  Psalms,  and  had  pro- 
ceeded as  far  as  the  Thirty-iirst  by  1625,  when  he  was  in- 
terrupted in  his  work  by  death. 

Calderwood  thus  speaks  of  the  undertaking  of  the 
King  in  connection  with  the  mention  of  his  conduct  in  the 
Assembly  of  1600  : 

"  A  proposition  was  made  for  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  correcting  of  the  Psalms  in  metre.  His  Majesty  did  urge  it  earnestly, 
and  with  many  other  reasons  did  persuade  the  undertaking  of  the  work  ; 
showing  the  necessitj^  and  the  profit  of  it,  and  what  glory  the  perform- 
ance thereof  would  bring  to  this  church.  When  speaking  of  the  necessity 
he  did  mention  sundry  escapes  in  the  common  translation  (of  the  Bible), 
and  made  it  seem  that  he  was  no  less  conversant  in  the  Scriptures  than 
they  whose  profession  it  was.  When  speaking  of  the  Psalms  he  did 
recite  whole  verses  of  the  same,  showing  both  the  faults  of  the  metre 
and  the  discrepancies  of  the  text.  It  was  the  joy  of  all  who  were  pres- 
ent, and  bred  not  little  admiration  in  the  whole  Assembly,  who,  ap- 
proving the  motion,  did  recommend  the  translation  (of  the  Bible)  to 
such  of  the  brethren  who  were  most  skilled  in  the  languages,  and  the 
revising  of  the  Psalms  to  Mr.  Robert  Pont.  But  nothing  was  done  in  the 
one  or  the  other.  Yet  did  not  the  King  let  his  intention  fall  to  the 
ground.  The  perfecting  of  the  Psalms  he  made  his  own  labor,  and  at 
such  hours  as  he  could  spare  from  the  public  cares  went  through  a  num- 
ber of  them,  commending  the  rest  to  a  faithful  learned  servant,  who 
hath  therein  answered  His  Majesty's  expectation." 

The  ' '  faithful  learned  servant ' '  was  William  Alex- 
ander, afterward  Earl  of  Sterling,  who  completed  the  version 
which  James  had  begun,  and  remodeled  those  of  James  him- 
self. This  version  was  presented  to  the  world  in  1630  or 
1631,  as  the  veritable  production  of  King   James,   and  so 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      191 

was  known  as  the  Royal  Psalter.      Of  it  Beatlie  remarks : 

"The  work  does  honor  to  the  learned  Monarch.     It  is  not 

free  from  the  Northern  idiom,  but  the  style  seems  to  me  to 

be  superior  to  every  other  Scotch  writer  of  that  age,    Haw- 

thorunden  excepted.     There  are  in  it  many  good  stanzas, 

most  of  which  have  been  adopted  by  the   compilers  of  the 

version  now  authorized  in  Scotland,   whereof  this  of  King 

James  is  indeed  the  groundwork.     Nay  these  compilers  have 

not  always  equaled  the  Royal  versifier,  where  they  intended, 

no  doubt,  to  excel  him.     I  shall  give  one  example.     The 

third  verse  of  the  Fiftieth  Psalm  stands  thus  in  our  version  : 

'  Our  God  shall  come  and  shall  no  more 

Be  silent,  but  speak  out ; 
Before  him  fire  shall  waste,  great  storms 
Shall  compass  him  about.' 

James    has    the    advantage    both    in    arrangement  of  the 

words  and  in  the  harmony  : 

'  Our  God  shall  come  and  shall  not  then 

Keep  silence  any  more  ; 
A  fire  before  him  shall  consume, 
Great  storms  about  him  roar.'  " 

Of  the  same  production,  Row  remarks  :  ' '  There  were 
some  expressions  so  poetical  and  so  far  from  the  language 
of  Canaan,  that  all  who  had  any  religion  did  dislike  them, 
such  as  calling  the  sun,  '  the  Lord  of  Light, '  and  the  moon, 
'  The  Pale  Ladie  of  the  Night.'  " 

When  Charles  I.  succeeded  James  in  the  government  of 
Great  Britain,  he  did  everything  in  his  power  to  carry  out 
the  scheme  of  his  father  for  fixing  upon  the  Scotch  the 
episcopacy  of  England.  Among  his  many  misguided  in- 
novations was  his  attempt  to  substitute  the  Royal  Psalter  oi 
James  for  the  old  version  of  the  Scotch  Assembly. 

According  to  Row  :  "  In  the  year  1634,  there  was  a  report  that  the 
King  would  have  the  Psalms  of  David  as  they  were  translated  and  para- 
phrased by  King  James,  his  father,  received  and  sung  in  all  the  Kirks  of 
Scotland.  Some  of  the  books  were  delivered  to  Presbyteries  that  min- 
isters might  advise  concerning  the  goodness  or  badness  of  the  transla- 
tion, and  report  their  judgments,  not  to  the  General  Assembly,  for  that 
great  bulwark  of  our  church  was  now  demolished,  but  to  the  diocesan 
assemblies.     Yet  the  matter  was  laid  aside  for  some  time." 

However,  though  the  new  Psalter  was  the  production  of 

!i  Scotch  King,  and  was  modeled  after  the  old  version  in  the 


192  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

matter  of  metres,  yet  the  movement  of  Charles  only  excited 
the  contempt  of  the  Scotch.  Says  Calderwood :  "The 
people  are  acquainted  with  the  old  metaphrase  more  than 
any  book  in  Scripture  ;  yea  some  sing  all  on  the  most  part 
without  a  buik,  and  some  that  cannot  read  sing  some 
Psalms." 

In  1636,  a  new  and  revised  edition  of  the  Royal  Psalter 
was  published,  when  Charles  again  urged  the  adoption  of  it 
by  the  Kirk  of  Scotland.  ' '  Finding  it  to  be  exactly  and 
truly  done,"  he  allowed  "  it  to  be  sung  in  all  churches  of 
his  dominions,"  and  gave  the  special  direction  with  regard 
to  Scotland,  that  "  no  other  Psalms  of  any  edition  whatever 
be  printed  hereafter  within  that  Kingdom,  or  imported 
thither  from  any  forrayne  parts." 

That  he  might  better  carry  out  his  design,  Charles  had 
the  Royal  Psalter  bound  up  with  a  Liturgy  prepared  by  the 
Scotch  Bishops,  with  the  assistance  of  Archbishop  Laud. 
But  this  act  only  outraged  the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the 
Scotch,  and  cast  a  deeper  odium  upon  Charles  and  his  father's 
Psalm-book.  The  following  note,  made  in  a  copy  of  this 
Liturgy  or  Service  Book,  which  has  been  preserved  in  the 
library  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  will  show  something 
of  the  estimate  placed  upon  it,  and  of  the  bitter  feeling 
awakened  by  it.  The  signature  is  that  of  Alexander  Block- 
head, said  to  be  genuine  : 

"  This  is  the  book  called  the  Service-book,  that  was  pressed  upon  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland  by  the  Prelates  of  that  tyme  (1637)  ;  a  book  full  of 
errors,  and  may  be  called  'The  Masse  in  English.'  The  reason  I  kept 
it  undestroyed  is,  that  all  generations  following  may  take  heed  of 
Novacions  in  the  Kirk,  and  praise  God  for  our  preservation.  (Signed) 
Alexander  Blockhead." 

When  the  service  under  the  new  Liturgy  was  first  read 
in  the  great  Cathedral  of  Edinburgh,  the  audience  was 
mostly  composed  of  women,  who  shouted  as  the  Dean  began 
his  exercises,  that  ' '  the  mass  was  entered  and  Baal  was  in 
the  church  "  Some  of  them  upbraided  the  presiding  clergy- 
man with  opprobrious  epithets,  while  one  found  no  better 
expression  of  her  contempt  than  to  hurl  a  stool  at  his  head. 
*■ '  Ane  godly  woman,  when  she  heard  a  young  man  behind 
her  sounding  forth  Amen  to  that  newly  composed  comedie, 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      193 

quickly  turned  her  round  about,  and  after  she  had  warmed 
both  his  cheeks  with  the  weight  of  her  hands,  she  then  shot 
against  him  the  thunderbolt  of  her  zeal :  '  False  thief,  is 
there  na  either  pairt  of  the  churche  to  sing  mess  in  but  thou 
must  sing  it  at  my  lugge." 

In  the  commotions  of  1638,  when  the  Scotch  banded 
themselves  in  a  covenant  for  the  maintenance  of  their  re- 
ligious liberties,  the  Psalm-book  of  Charles,  with  the  Service 
Book  of  Laud  and  the  Scotch  Bishops,  went  down.  An  in- 
cident connected  with  the  effort  of  Charles  to  conciliate  those 
whom  he  had  attempted  to  ruin,  will  show  the  persistence 
with  which  he  and  his  priesthood  sought  to  carry  out  their 
measures.  At  one  time,  when  twenty  thousand  Covenanters, 
were  assembled  at  Edinburgh  to  observe  a  Fast,  Charles  sent 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  to  cajole  and  flatter  them  into 
terms.  As  these  twenty  thousand  Covenanters  went  to  meet 
the  Marquis,  seven  hundred  priests,  who  accompanied  him, 
placed  themselves  upon  an  eminence  and  sang  Psalms  from 
the  Koyal  Psalter,  as  the  commissioner  passed  along. 

But  neither  force  nor  flattery  would  avail,  and  to  the 
proposition  that  they  should  dissolve  their  league,  the  Scotch 
replied,  "  that  they  would  sooner  renounce  their  baptism 
than  their  covenant." 

Although  the  Scottish  Church  did  not  choose  to  accept 
of  the  Royal  Psalter  as  a  substitute  for  its  old  version,  yet 
there  were  many  of  the  leading  Scotch  minds  that  were  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  for  securing  a  new  and  improved 
Psalm-book.  This  same  conviction  was  participated  in  by 
the  Puritans  of  England.  This  dissatisfaction  finally  cul- 
minated in  a  series  of  efforts  that  gave  to  us  the  version  com- 
monly known  as  "Rous'  Version  of  the  Psalms  of  David." 

For  the  incipient  movements  in  the  history  of  this  ver- 
sion, we  must  come  down  in  our  narrative  to  the  convocation 
of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  This  Assembly, 
the  offspring  both  of  religious  controversy  and  of  the  desire 
of  the  Scottish  and  English  Christians  for  a  closer  union  in 
the  bonds  of  their  faith,  was  convened  by  Parliament  in  an 
ordinance  issued  June  12,  1643.  In  the  calling  of  the  As- 
sembly there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  reference  to 


19J:  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  subject  of  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms.  The  agitation 
that  gave  origin  to  that  great  body  had  reference  chiefly  to 
the  more  important  features  of  faith  and  worship.  But  as 
the  Christians  of  both  England  and  Scotland  felt  the  need  of 
an  improvement  in  their  sacred  songs,  no  better  opportunity 
for  securing  uniformity  in  the  choice  of  a  new  Psalm-book 
could  be  presented  than  that  convocation  of  Divines. 

The  two  versions  that  were  especially  prominent  before 
the  Westminster  Assembly  were  those  of  William  Barton  and 
Francis  Rous  or  Rouse.    Barton's  Psalms  were  first  printed  in 

1644,  and  upon  his  own  petition  were  introduced  to  the  notice 
of  Parliament  and    the  Westminster  Assembly    in  October 

1645,  as  appears  from  the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
under  date  of  Oct.  7,  1645:  "Upon  the  humble  petition  of 
William  Barton,  Measter  of  Arts,  read  this  day  in  the  House: 
It  is  ordered,  etc.,  That  two  Books  of  David's  Psalms  com- 
posed in  English  metre  by  the  petitioner,  and  presented  to 
their  Lordships,  are  hereby  referred  to  the  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines to  be  read  over,  and  judged  by  them;  and  the  result 
of  their  judgments  thereupon  returned  to  this  House,  that 
such  further  direction  may  be  given  touching  the  same,  as 
shall  be  meet. ' ' 

Several  editions  of  Barton's  Psalms  were  published  be- 
tween 1644  and  1682.  The  edition  of  1645  contained  the 
license  of  Cromwell  as  Protector.  In  his  later  editions  Bar- 
ton amended  many  of  his  Psalms  in  accordance  with  crit- 
icisms made  upon  them,  and  added  ' '  many  fresh  metres. ' ' 
In  the  preface  to  the  edition  of  1654  appeared  the  following 
statement  with  reference  to  the  Psalm-book  that  had  been 
prepared  and  adopted  by  the  Scotch  Kirk:  "The  sects  of 
late  have  put  forth  a  Psalm-book,  most-what  composed  out 
of  mine,  and  Mr.  Rous  his,  but  it  did  not  give  full  satis- 
faction, for  somebody  hath  been  at  charge  to  put  forth  a  new 
version  of  mine,  and  printed  some  thousands  of  mine  in  Hol- 
land, as  it  is  reported;  but  whether  they  were  printed  there 
or  no,  I  am  in  doubt;  for  I  am  sure  that  fifteen  hundred  of 
my  books  were  heretofore  printed  by  stealth  in  England  and 
carried  over  to  Ireland. "  In  the  versions  published  between 
1682  and  1705  Mr.  Barton's  Psalms  appeared  "as  he  left  it 
finished  in  his  lifetime. ' ' 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.     195 

The  successful  competitor  before  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly in  the  matter  of  Psalmody  was  Francis  Rous,  one 
of  the  most  prominent  Englishmen  of  the  time,  a  great 
scholar,  and  several  times  a  member  of  Parliament.  "He 
was  a  learned  and  religious  man,  fearless  in  his  opposition 
to  error  and  zealous  for  everything  which  he  conceived  to 
be  for  the  interest  of  the  Gospel.  During  the  latter  years 
of  his  life  he  enjoyed  the  high  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms  in  very  general  use  in  England,  and  of 
knowing  it  to  be  universally  adopted  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  that  the  pious  people  of  an  entire  kingdom  were 
daily  employing  his  strains  in  both  their  public  and  domestic 
worship. "  It  was  during  the  twelve  years  previous  to  1640, 
in  which  the  Parliament  was  not  permitted  to  assemble,  that 
Mr.  Rous  turned  his  attention  to  the  versifying  of  the 
Psalms.  His  version  is  supposed,  by  a  writer  in  Wood's 
Athense  Oxonienses,  to  have  been  first  put  in  print  in  1641. 
Copies  of  this  edition  are  very  scarce.  Dr.  Cotton  says  he 
never  met  with  but  one  copy  of  it  in  all  the  libraries  he  had 
seen,  and  that  was  in  possession  of  Dr.  Bliss,  of  Oxford, 

The  edition  that  was  recommended  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  Westminster  Assembly  was  printed  in  1643,  and 
bore  the  title:  "The  Psalmes  of  David  in  English  meeter, 
set  forth  by  Francis  Rous,  April  17,  1643,  It  is  this  day 
ordered  by  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  Par- 
liament for  printing,  that  this  Book,  entitled  The  Psalmes  of 
David,  &c. ,  (according  to  the  desires  of  many  reverend  min- 
isters) be  published  for  the  generall  use.  And  for  the  true 
correcting  of  it,  be  published  by  these  the  Author  shall  ap- 
point. 

'  'I  do  appoint  Philip  Nevill  and  Peter  Whateley  to  print 
these  Psalms,  Francis  Rous. 

"London:  Printed  by  James  Young,  for  Philip  Nevill, 
at  the  signe  of  the  Gun  in  Ivie-lane,  1643." 

In  this  volume  were  312  pages  and  twelve  leaves  not 
paged  of  "Psalmes  of  harder  and  lesse  usuall  Tunes  cor- 
rected, and  the  tunes  not  altered,"  along  with  "A  Table  of 
the  Psalmes." 

In   1646  Mr.   Rous  published  an  edition,  revised  and 


196  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

corrected  in  accordance  with  the  criticisms  made  and  the 
changes  recommended  by  the  various  committees  of  the 
"Westminster  Assembly,  This  edition  was  printed  by  Miles 
Fletcher  for  the  Company  of  Stationers,  and  contained  255 
pages  of  12mo. 

Mr.  Rous  in  the  preface  to  his  Psalms  thus  refers  to 
the  undertaking  of  his  versification:  "Apprehending  many 
years  past  that  a  forme  wholly  new  would  not  please  many, 
who  are  fastened  to  things  usual  and  accustomed,  I  assaied 
only  to  change  some  pieces  of  the  usual  version,  even  such 
as  seemed  to  call  aloud  and,  as  it  were,  undeniably  for  a 
change.  These  being  seen,  it  was  desired  that  they  should 
be  increased,  which  being  done  they  are  hereby  subjoined." 

The  subject  of  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms  was  first 
brought  before  the  Assembly  by  an  order  from  the  House 
of  Commons,  bearing  date  of  "20  Novembris,  1648," 
yet  the  new  Psalm  book  was  not  reported  completed  till 
Nov.  14,  1645.  This  report  was  made  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  is  thus  referred  to  in  the  Journals  of  that 
body:  "The  House  being  informed  that  some  of  the  As- 
sembly of  Divines  were  at  the  door,  they  were  called  in, 
and  Mr,  Wilson  acquainted  the  House  that,  according  to  a 
former  order  of  this  House,  they  had  perused  the  Psalms 
set  out  by  Mr.  Rous;  and  as  they  are  now  altered  and 
amended  do  conceive  they  may  be  useful  to  the  Church." 
Upon  the  receipt  of  this  report  the  House  immediately  re- 
solved, '  'That  this  Book  of  Psalms,  set  forth  by  Mr.  Rous, 
and  perused  by  the  Assembly  ot  Divines,  be  forthwith 
printed. ' ' 

Speaking  of  this  Psalter,  Baillie,  in  a  letter  dated  Nov, 
25,  1645,  remarks:  "The  Psalms  are  perfyted:  the  best 
without  all  doubt  that  ever  yet  were  extant.  They  are  on 
the  presse;  but  not  to  be  perused  till  they  be  sent  to  yow, 
and  your  animadversions  returned  hither,  which  we  wish 
were  so  soon  as  might  be, ' ' 

Under  date  of  22d  Nov.,  1643,  appears  the  following: 
"The  first  thing  done  this  morning  was,  that  Sir  Benjamin 
Rudyard  got  an  order  from  the  House  of  Commons  wherein 
they  require  our  advice  whether  Mr.  Rous' s  Psalms  may  not 


THE  rSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      197 

be  sung  in  churches;  and  this  being  debated,  it  was  referred 
to  the  three  committees  to  take  every  one — fifty  Psalms. ' ' 
When  the  communication  of  the  House  of  Commons  ap- 
peared, a  committee  was  appointed  by  the  Assembly  "to  con- 
sider these  Psalms. "  The  Scotch  Commissioners  were  not 
prepared  to  take  part  in  this  action,  owing  to  their  not  hav- 
ing received  the  opinion  and  direction  of  the  Church  at 
home.     In  May,  1644,  they  wrote  home  as  follows: 

"  There  was  also  presented  to  the  Assembly  a  new  paraphrase  of 
the  Psalms  in  English  metre,  which  was  well  liked  and  commended  by 
some  members  of  the  Assembly.  But,  because  we  conceived  that  one 
Psalm-book  in  all  the  three  kingdoms  was  a  point  of  uniformity  much 
to  be  desired,  we  took  the  boldness  (although  we  had  no  such  express 
and  particular  commission)  to  oppose  the  present  allowing  thereof,  till 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland  should  be  acquainted  with  it ;  and  therefore  we 
have  now  sent  an  essay  thereof  in  some  Psalms." 

Although  the  Scottish  Kirk  soon  after  this  date  gave  its 
permission  to  its  commissioners  to  take  part  in  the  move- 
ment for  a  new  Psalter,  yet  the  matter  progressed  very  tar- 
dily. Something  of  the  impatience  of  the  delegates  at  the 
delay  will  appear  from  the  following  notices  of  Principal 
Baillie: 

To  Lord  Lauderdale  he  wrote,  June  17th,  1645,  "You 
have  here  also  the  last  fifty  of  Mr.  Rous' s  Psalmes.  They 
would  be  sent  to  Edinburgh  to  the  committee  for  the  Psalmes. 
Mr.  Andrew  Kerr  will  deliver  them.  When  your  Lordship 
goes  hither,  you  would  stirr  up  that  committee  to  dilligence, 
for  if  once  their  animadversions  were  come  up,  I  believe  the 
book  would  quickly  be  printed  and  practiced  here." 

The  House  of  Lords  does  not  seem  to  have  given  its 
final  sanction  to  the  publication  of  Rous' s  version  till  some 
time  in  1647,  as  we  learn  from  the  letter  of  Baillie,  bearing 
date  of  Jan.  26,  1647. 

In  the  efforts  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  we  see 
prominent  the  same  determination  manifested  in  France, 
Holland  and  Scotland  at  an  earlier  date  to  sanction  no  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms  that  was  not  closely  conformed  to  the 
"original  text."  The  versions  of  Boyd  and  Barton  were 
both  refused  because  of  the  liberties  taken  in  their  transla- 
tion.    Rous's  Psalms  became  the  basis  of  the  Assembly's 


198  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

work  because  it  was  '  'so  closely  framed  according  to  the  orig- 
inal text."  As  close  as  Roiis's  translations  were,  the  As- 
sembly of  Divines  could  not  express  its  final  approbation  of 
the  whole  volume,  until  it  presented  the  modifications  of 
two  years'  deliberaMon. 

Baillie,  in  his  letters,  frequently  expresses  what  was  the 
desire  of  the  majority  in  the  Assembly.  In  a  letter  to  Row- 
allan  in  1645,  when  one  hundred  of  the  Psalms  had  been 
completed,  he  says  they  were  "  sent  down  to  the  Commis- 
sionersof  our  Generall  Assemblie,  to  be  mended  in  every 
thing  which  the  Committee  appointed  there  for  that  end  shall 
find  to  have  need  of  amendment;  the  fifty  that  remain  will 
soon  follow.  It  is  our  earnest  desyre  that  the  Psalter  might 
at  this  time  be  put  in  such  a  frame  that  we  need  not  to  be 
troubled  hereafter  with  any  new  translation  thereof." 

To  Robert  Douglass  he  writes,  in  the  same  year,  of  his 
fears  that  there  were  too  few  anxious  to  join  in  the  work  of 
correcting  the  Psalter,  and  adds,  ' '  This  my  f eare  hes  made 
me  bold  to  intreat  you,  both  for  the  zeal  you  have  to  the 
puritie  of  that  translation  and  to  the  honor  of  the  Church, 
to  bestow  much  of  your  time  as  convenientlie  you  may  upon 
that  very  necessar  service.  These  lines  are  likely  to  go  up 
to  God  from  many  millions  of  tongues,  for  many  genera- 
tions; it  were  a  pity  but  all  possible  diligence  were  used  to 
have  them  framed  so  well  as  might  be." 

Though  the  Psalms  of  Rous,  as  they  passed  the  Assem- 
bly at  Westminster,  are  pronounced  by  the  Scotch  Commis- 
sioners most  perfect,  and  though  the  Committee  of  the  Scot- 
tish Assembly  sat  in  judgment  on  them  as  they  were  sent  to 
them,  from  time  to  time,  by  their  delegates  at  London,  yet 
the  Scottish  Kirk  was  not  content  to  finally  adopt  them  until 
they  had  passed  through  a  new  series  of  "animadversions," 
and  so  had  really  lost  their  character  as  the  real  versions  of 
Francis  Rous.  According  to  Baillie,  "they  dismissed  from 
Rous'  version  every  extraneous  composition.  The  Assembly 
were  determined  to  keep  not  only  to  the  sense,  but  as  far  as 
possible  to  the  very  words  of  the  sacred  text." 

After  more  than  seven  years  of  revising  and  re-revising,^ 
of   correctings   and   re-correctings;  after   passing   through 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      199 

Committees  and  Presbyteries  and  Assemblies,  the  version  that 
was  originally  the  production  of  Rous,  came  forth  in  the  form 
in  which  it  was  to  be  sung  in  the  Psalm-singing  Churches 
for  two  hundred  years.  This  new  paraphrase,  a  compila- 
tion from  the  old  version  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  the  ver- 
sion of  King  James,  those  of  Boyd,  Barton,  Rous,  and 
probably  of  others,  was  printed  with  the  title:  "The  Psalms 
of  David  in  Meeter:  Newly  translated  and  diligently  com- 
pared with  the  Original  Text  and  former  Translations;  More 
plain,  smooth  and  agreeable  to  the  Text  than  any  heretofore. 
Allowed  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  and  appointed  to  be  sung  in  Congregations 
and  Families.  Edinburgh.  Printed  by  Evan  Tyler,  Prin- 
ter to  the  King's  Most  Excellent  Majesty,  1650."  With 
the  Psalms  were  also  printed  the  Acts  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, Aug.  6th,  of  the  Assembly's  Commission,  23d  Nov., 
1649,  and  of  the  Committee  of  Estates,  8th  January,  1650, 
authorizing  the  version  to  be  used  from  May  1,  1650. 

While  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  this  version  of  the 
Psalms,  it  was  the  fond  hope  of  the  Scotch  that  it  would  be 
adopted  by  the  Presbyterians  and  Independents  of  England, 
and  that  the  desired  uniformity  in  praise  would  be  thus  se- 
cured; but  in  this  they  were  disappointed,  owing  to  the  de- 
sire of  many  English  divines  to  use  whatsoever  Psalter  they 
might  wish.  Of  this  Baillie  complains  in  a  letter  written  as 
early  as  1646.  To  William  Spang  he  observes:  "Our  long 
labour  on  the  Psalmes,  when  readie  to  be  put  into  practice, 
are  lyke,  by  a  faction,  to  be  altogether  stiffled;  they  will 
have  a  libertie  to  take  what  Psalter  they  will. ' ' 

In  Scotland,  when  the  new  paraphrase  was  almost  com- 
pleted, there  arose  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  some  whether 
the  version  of  Rous,  even  as  amended,  should  be  received, 
owing  to  that  author  having  joined  what  were  then  termed 
the  Sectaries  of  England.  Among  those  entertaining  scru- 
ples on  this  point  was  Baillie,  who  writes  in  September  of 
1649:  "I  think  at  last  we  shall  get  a  new  Psalter.  I  have 
furthered  that  work  ever  with  my  best  wishes;  but  the 
scruple  now  aryses  of  it  in  my  mind,  the  first  author  of  the 
translation,  Mr.  Rous,  my  good  friend,  has  complyed  Tvith 


200  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  Sectaries,  and  is  a  member  of  their  republick;  how  a 
Psalter  of  his  framing,  albeit  with  much  variation,  shall  be 
receaved  by  our  church,  I  do  not  know;  yet  it  is  needful 
we  have  one,  and  a  better  in  haste  we  cannot  have."  The 
apprehensions  of  Baillie  as  to  division  in  the  Assembly 
were  not  realized,  and  the  new  version  passed  without  dif- 
ficulty. 

This  new  Paraphrase,  which  may  well  be  termed 
"Rous'  version,"  owing  to  his  versification  having  been  the 
basis  of  the  Assembly's  work,  has  now  been  in  use  for  over 
two  hundred  years,  having  possessed  an  unrivaled  reign 
longer  than  any  other  metrical  version  since  the  beginning 
of  the  Reformation. 

Its  merits  and  demerits  have  been  variously  canvassed; 
by  friends  it  has  been  extolled  beyond  what  it  really  de- 
serves, by  enemies  charged  with  follies  that  it  does  not  pos- 
sess. 

It  may  be  said  in  its  praise  that  at  the  time  of  its  com- 
pletion it  constituted  the  best  metrical  translation  of  the 
Psalms  that  had  ever  been  published.  Its  close  adherence  to 
the  original  text  has  not,  even  to  this  day,  been  surpassed. 
Accepting  the  opinions  of  good  and  unprejudiced  critics  the 
assertion  may  be  ventured  that  while  the  Old  Testament 
would  lose  in  grandeur  and  in  sublime  diction,  it  would  not 
sacrifice  any  of  its  ideas  and  inspiration  by  a  substitution  of 
Rous'  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  for  King  James'  prose 
translation.  These  Psalms  are,  as  far  as  a  translation  can 
well  be,  the  very  utterances  the  Spirit  dictated  to  the  Psalm- 
ists in  the  days  of  old. 

That  this  close  adherence  to  the  original  has  been  ob- 
tained at  a  sacrifice,  and  in  some  instances  a  complete  sacri- 
fice, of  poetic  merit,  no  reasonable  man  can  deny.  When 
these  Psalms  compete  with  other  more  recent  versions,  or 
with  the  popular  hymns  of  the  day  for  the  awards  of  mod- 
ern taste  and  of  latter  day  poetic  refinement,  they  fall  far  in 
the  background.  There  are  portions  of  them  that  may  have 
been  appreciated  two  hundred  years  ago,  but  which  now  are 
read  or  sung-  with  a  smile. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      201 

Such  constructions  as: 

"  The  na-ti-ons  of  Ca-na-an 
By  his  Almighty  hand, 
Before  their  face  he  did  expel 

Out  of  their  native  land."— Ps.  78:  55. 


Or 


Or 


"  A  man  was  famous  and  was  had 
In  estima-ti-on 
According  as  he  lifted  up 
His  axe  thick  trees  upon; 

"  But  all  at  once  with  axes  now 
And  hammers  they  go  to 
And  down  the  carved  work  thereof 
They  break  and  quite  undo." — Ps.  74:  5,  6. 

"  Do  to  them  as  to  Midian; 
Jabin  at  Kison  strand, 
And  Sis'ra;  which  at  Endor  fell 
As  dung  to  fat  the  land."— Ps.  83:  9,  10. 

are  so  rude  and  so  unpoetical  that  even  their  literalness  will 
not  make  atonement. 

Yet  there  are,  beyond  a  doubt,  entire  Psalms,  and  parts 
of  almost  all  the  versifications,  that  the  criticism  of  the 
musician  or  rhetorician  can  not  depreciate  in  the  estimation 
of  their  friends.  They  have  in  them  so  much  of  the  divine 
power,  and  are  so  completely  interwoven  with  our  early  and 
later  religious  experience,  that,  like  all  works  of  real  worth, 
they  have  outlived,  and  should  ever  outlive,  the  complaints 
of  the  learned. 

It  seems  almost  like  profanity  to  a  life-long  Psalm- 
singer  to  criticize  the  time-honored  Twenty- third  Psalm: 

"  The  Lord's  my  shepherd,  I'll  not  want, 
He  makes  me  down  to  lie 
In  pastures  green ;  he  leadeth  me 
The  quiet  waters  by." 

Who  that  has  had  his  heart  warmed  by  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  God  can  find  a  fitter  expression  for  his  affections  than 
in  the  One  hundred  and  sixteenth  Psalm  ? 

"  I  love  the  Lord  because  my  voice 
And  prayers  he  did  hear. 
I  while  I  live  will  call  on  him 
AVho  bowed  to  me  his  ear,"  &c. 


202  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

The  Twenty-seventh  could  not  be  improved  as  a  battle 
song  when  we  contend  either  against  our  spiritual  or  tem- 
poral foes: 

"  The  Lord's  my  life  and  saving  health; 
Who  shall  make  me  dismayed  ? 
My  Life's  strength  is  the  Lord;  of  whom 
Then  shall  I  be  afraid  ?  " 

The  First,  Second,  Sixth,  L.  M.;  Eighteenth,  Twenty- 
second,  Twenty-third,  Twenty-fourth,  Ninetieth,  One  hun- 
dredth, L.  M. ;  One  hundred  and  twenty-first  and  many 
others  contain,  either  throughout  or  in  parts,  elements  that 
might  be  comprised  in  the  forming  of  a  perfect  Psalm-book; 
and  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  compilers  in  hymnology 
who  have  gathered  from  so  many  sources,  both  ancient  and 
modern,  have  found  little  worthy  of  culling  out  of  the  old 
Psalms  that  have  stood  the  wear  and  tear  of  two  centuries. 

The  Scotch  version  of  1650  formed  the  staple  of  praise 
among  the  Covenanters  in  some  of  their  most  terrible  perse- 
cutions, and  ever  since  it  has  contained  the  only  authorized 
Psalms  of  the  dissenting  churches  of  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
Soon  after  its  first  publication,  it  was  extensively  adopted 
among  the  English  Presbyterians  and  Independents.  In 
1673,  an  edition  was  published  in  England  with  a  preface 
written  by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Owen.  This  preface  is  as 
follows  : 

"Surely,  singing  of  Psalms  is  a  duty  of  such  comfort  and  profit,  that 
it  needeth  not  our  recommendation  ;  the  new  nature  is  instead  of  all  ar- 
guments, which  ( annot  be  without  this  Scriptural  solace.  Our  devotion 
is  best  secured,  where  the  matter  and  the  words  are  of  immediately 
divine  inspiration  ;  and  to  us,  David's  Psalms  seem  plainly  intended  by 
those  terms  of  psalms,  and  hymns,  and  spiritual  songs,  which  the  apostle 
useth.  Eph.  5,  19;  Col.  3,  16.  But  it  is  meet  that  these  divine  compo- 
eitions  should  be  represented  to  us  in  a  fit  translation,  lest  we  want  David 
in  David  ;  while  his  holy  ecstacies  are  delivered  in  a  fiat  and  bold  ex- 
pression. The  translation  which  is  now  put  into  thy  hand,  cometh 
nearest  to  the  original  of  any  that  we  have  seen,  and  runneth  with  such 
fluent  sweetness,  that  we  thought  it  fit  to  recommend  it  to  thy  Christian 
acceptance  ;  some  of  us  having  used  it  already,  with  great  comfort  and 
satisfaction." 

These  Psalms  were  also  sung  by  some  of  the  Baptist 
congregations,  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  have  even  been  adopted  by  the  Irish  Unitarians  at  Ulster. 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED   CHURCH.     203 

In  America,  they  formed  the  sole  praise  of  the  present 
Presbyteran  churches,  until  after  the  Kevolution,  when  in 
some  of  the  bodies  they  were  superceded  by  the  paraphrase 
of  Isaac  Watts.  In  the  Covenanter  churches,  the  United 
Presbyterian  church,  and  the  Associate  Reformed  Presby- 
terian church  of  the  South,  they  are  still  the  substance  of 
praise. 

It  was  the  One  hundred  and  seventeenth  Psalm  of  this 
version  that  the  soldiers  of  Cromwell  sang  at  the  Battle  of 
Dunbar,  September  3,  1650.  After  the  routing  of  the 
Scotch  army,  and  while  the  cavalry  was  collecting  for  the 
chase,  CromweU  halted  his  forces  at  the  foot  of  Doon's 
hill,  where  they  sang  to  the  tune  of  Bangor,  or  some  still 
higher  score,  and  rolled  it  strong  and  great  against  the  sky, 

"  0  give  ye  praise  unto  the  Lord, 

All  nations  that  be  ; 
Likewise,  ye  people  all,  accord 

His  name  to  magnify. 
For  great  to  us-ward  ever  are 

His  loving-kindnesses ; 
His  truth  endures  forevermore, 

The  Lord,  0  do  ye  bless." 

At  the  battle  of  Drumclog,  in  June,  1679,  this  old 
version  afforded  the  martial  song  of  the  Scotch  soldiers. 
' '  As  Claverhouse  descended  from  the  opposite  side  of  the 
mountain,  the  women,  children  and  old  men  retired  to  the 
rising  in  the  rear  of  our  hosts."  The  aged  men  walked  with 
their  bonnets  in  their  hands,  and  their  grey  locks  waved  in 
the  breeze.  They  sang  a  cheering  Psalm.  The  music  was 
that  of  the  well-known  tune  of  "The  Martyrs,"  and  the 
sentiment  breathed  defiance.  The  music  floated  down  on 
the  wind.  Our  men  gave  three  cheers  as  they  fell  into 
rank.  As  they  marched  out,  the  army  "sang  the  following 
verses  of  a  Psalm  ": 

**  Their  arrows  of  the  bow  he  brake, 

The  shield,  the  sword,  the  war. 
More  glorious  thou  than  hills  of  prey, 

More  excellent  art  far. 
Those  that  were  stout  of  heart  are  spoiled, 

They  slept  their  sleep  outright. 
And  none  of  these  their  hands  did  find 

That  were  the  men  of  might." 


204  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Among  the  many  criticisms  of  Rous'  version,  the  fol- 
lowing have  been  selected  : 

Some  allowance  must  be  made  for  early  impressions ;  but  at  a 
maturer  period  of  life,  atter  looking  at  various  metrical  versions  of  the 
Psalms,  I  am  well  satisfied  that  the  version  used  in  Scotland  is,  upon  the 
whole,  the  best,  and  that  it  is  in  vain  to  think  of  having  a  better.  It 
has,  in  general,  a  simplicity  and  unction  of  sacred  poetry,  and  in  many 
places  its  transfusion  is  admirable. — Boswell,  Biographer  of  Dr.  Johnson. 

McChene  was  such  an  admirer  of  this  version  that  he 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  ' '  that  it  should  be  read  or  sung  through 
at  least  once  a  year.  It  is  truly  an  admirable  translation 
from  the  Hebrew,  and  is  frequently  more  correct  than  the 
prose  version." 

Said  Rufus  Choate — "  An  uncommon  pith  and  gnarled  vigor  of  senti- 
ment lies  in  that  old  version  ;  I  prefer  it  to  Watts." 

It  may  be  noticed  here  that  the  Doxology  that  had  been 
printed  in  some  of  the  editions  of  the  old  Scotch  Psalter, 
and  which  was  widely  used  in  Scotland  and  England,  was 
dropped  in  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Baillie  thus  refers 
to  the  omission  of  it : 

About  the  conclusion  of  the  Psalms  we  had  no  debate  with  them  ; 
without  scruple,  Independents  and  all  sang  it,  so  far  as  I  know,  when  it 
was  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Second  or  Third  Psalm.  But  in  the  new 
translation  of  the  Psalms,  resolving  to  keep  punctuallie  to  the  original 
text,  without  any  addition,  we  and  they  were  content  to  omit  that  where- 
upon we  saw  both  the  Popish  and  Prelaticall  parties  did  so  much  dote,  as 
to  put  it  to  the  end  of  the  most  of  their  lessons,  and  all  of  their  Psalms." 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  the  first  authorized  Scot- 
tish Psalm-book,  the  Psalms  were  translated  into  metre  in 
the  Gaelic,  the  language  of  the  Highlanders. 

In  1781  the  General  Assembly  of  Scotland  gave  its  ap- 
proval to  a  full  version  of  the  Psalms  in  Gaelic  metre,  by 
John  Smith.  In  1783  the  Synod  of  Argyle  revised  and  ex- 
amined this  version,  and  returned  it  to  Mr.  Smith  that  he 
might  prepare  it  for  the  press,  with  the  corrections  sug- 
gested by  the  Synod.  This  version,  as  then  published,  is 
still  in  use  among  those  countries  in  Scotland  where  the  na- 
tive Highland  language  is  spoken,  and  among  many  of  the 
Gaelic  settlements  in  the  Canadas  and  the  United  States. 
The  title  to  this  version  was:  "  Sailm  Dhaibhidh  Maille  Ri 
Laoidhean  o'n  Scrioptur  Naomha  chum  rhi  air  an  seinn  ann 


THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  SCOTTISH  REFORMED  CHURCH.      205 

an  aora'  dhia.  Air  an  leasachadh  agus  air  an  cur  amach  do 
reir  seolaidh,  iartais,  agus  ughdarais  seanaidh  earraghaeil. 
Le  I.  Smith,  D.  D.  Dun-eiden:  Air  son  W.  Andersan, 
sruileadh,  1805."  This  version  is  a  translation  of  Rous' 
Psalms.     A  selection  is  here  given: 


SALM  1.     Le  I.  Smith,  D.  D.,  567. 
Gaelic  Edition  of  1805. 

'SBEANNUICHT  an  duine  sin  nach  gliiais 

An  comhairle  nan  daoi, 
An  slighe  fhiar  nam  peacach  baoth, 

'Na  sheasamh  fos  nach  bi; 
An  cathair  fanoid  luchd  an  spors 

Nach  togair  suidh'  gu  brath. 

2.  Acli  gam  bheil  toil  do  naomh-reachd,  Dhe, 

Ga  smaointeach'  oidhch'  is  la. 

3.  Mair  ur-chrann  uaine  bithidh  e, 

Aig  uisge  seimh  a'  fas, 
A  bheir  'na  Mimsir  toradh  trom, 

Gun  duille  chall  no  blath. 
Soirbhichibd  leis  gach  ni  d'an  dean: 

4.  Ni  h-amhluidh  sin  a  bhios 

Na  daoine  peacach,  ach  mar  mhoU 
Air  fhuadachadh  le  gaoith. 

5.  Fan  aobhar  sin  cha  seas  a  suas 

Na  h-aingidh  anns  a'  bhreith, 
No  peacaich  ann  an  comunn  naomh 

Nam  fireanach  air  leth 
Oir's  fiosrach  dia  air  slighe  ghloin 

Nam  foreanach  air  fad: 
Ach  shlighe  fhiar  nam  peacach  baoth, 

Di-mhilltear  i  gu  grad. 

The  Psalms  were  also  translated  into  the  native  lan- 
guage of  the  Welsh,  but  at  what  period  this  first  occurred 
does  not  appear.  As  early  as  1603  a  Welsh  metrical  ver- 
sion was  prepared  by  the  celebrated  bard  and  navigator, 
William  Myddleton,  and  was  printed  in  London  by  Simon 
Stafford  and  Thomas  Salisbury,  About  the  beginning  of 
the  same  century  Rev.  Edmund  Prys,  Arch-Deacon  of  Meri- 
noth,  versified  the  Psalms  in  the  Welsh  dialect.  His  version 
was  subsequently  revised  by  Rev.  Peter  Williams,  and  is 
now  in  use  throughout  the  principality  of  Wales. 


206  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

In  conformity  with  an  act  of  the  Scotch  Assembly, 
passed  in  1690,  the  Synod  of  Argyle  undertook  and  com- 
pleted a  version  of  the  Psalms  in  the  Irish  language.  This 
version  was  introduced  to  the  Christians  worshiping  in  that 
tongue  by  a  recommendation  of  the  Assembly  in  1694:  "It 
IS  recommended  to  all  congregations  and  families  who  wor- 
ship God  in  the  Irish  language,  to  make  use  therein  of  the 
paraphrase  of  the  Psalms  in  Irish  metre,  approven  and 
emitted  by  the  Synod  of  Argyle,  conform  to  the  act  of  the 
General  Assembly  1690;  and  that  where  preaching  and 
prayer  are  used  in  Irish,  the  singing  of  the  Psalms  at  the 
same  diet  in  a  different  language  be  forborne  thereafter,  as 
an  incongruous  way  of  worshiping  God." 

In  1761  a  metrical  version  of  twenty-eight  Psalms  was 
executed  in  the  Manx  language,  spoken  in  the  Isle  of  Man, 
by  Revs.  Robert  Radcliffe  and  Matthias  Curgey,  residents 
of  that  isle. 

In  1836  there  appeared  another  version  of  the  Psalms 
in  the  Erse  or  native  Irish  tongue,  prepared  by  Dr.  Mc- 
Leod,  Rev.  H.  H.  Beamish,  Thaddeus  Connettan  and  David 
Murphy.     This  version  was  published  in  London. 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Psalms  in  the  American  Colonies. 

The  Psalmody  of  the  Puritans  in  old  England,  and  that 
of  the  sects  into  which  they  subsequently  divided,  has  always 
been  somewhat  confused.  At  no  time  even  since  the  separa- 
tion from  the  Episcopacy,  had  there  been  any  special  version 
of  the  Psalms  adopted  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  Con- 
gregations and  families  seem  to  have  been  left  to  employ 
such  versifications  as  their  own  tastes  dictated.  Before  the 
Non-conformists  had  withdrawn  from  the  Establishment, 
but  while  they  were  in  many  places  holding  meetings  by  them- 
selves, the  Psalms  used  were  those  of  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins, as  they  had  been  allowed  in  the  churches  of  England. 
This  version  continued  among  them,  as  well  as  among  the 
adherents  of  the  Episcopacy,  until  some  time  after  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Westminster  Assembly;  in  a  few  instances,  in- 
deed, until  in  the  last  century. 

In  addition  to  this  version,  others  seem  to  have  had  a 
limited  use  in  the  Puritan  congregations  from  time  to  time. 
The  editions  of  Merrick  and  Sandys  were  authorized  by  the 
English  Parliament,  and  found  a  few  patrons.  When  Bar- 
ton' s  Psalms  were  issued  and  allowed  by  the  English  author- 
ities, they  were  extensively  adopted  among  the  Presbyte- 
rians and  Independents,  and  continued  in  use  for  a  period  of 
more  than  fifty  years.  The  license  of  Oliver  Cromwell  did 
much  to  introduce  them  to  public  favor. 

The  version  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  by  Francis 
Rous,  had  its  friends  who  exerted  their  influence  towards  its 
adoption  in  the  families  and  congregations  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian churches.  It  was  this  version  that  some  refugees,  about 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  took  with  them  over  to 
Holland,  and  it  was  from  this  that  they  sang,  as  a  song  of 
gratitude  after  narrowly  escaping  shipwreck  off  the  coasts 
of  Norway: 

"  0  that  the  Lord  to  men  would  give 
Praise  for  his  goodness  then,"  etc. 

(207) 


208  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  version  adopted  by  the 
Scotch  Kirk,  in  1650,  was  published  in  England  and  passed 
into  use  among  some  of  the  most  prominent  non-conformist 
churches.  This  version  is  still  in  use  in  some  of  the  Engr. 
lish  Presbyterian  churches. 

When  the  imitations  and  hymns  of  Dr.  Watts  were 
published,  they  gradually  worked  their  way  among  the  de- 
scendants of  the  early  Puritans  of  England,  and  are  now,  in 
most  cases,  the  principal  Psalmody  of  their  congregations. 

To  the  Puritans  of  England  we  are  indebted  for  the 
religious  carols,  which  almost  two  centuries  ago  were  com- 
mon among  those  embracing  that  peculiar  faith.  Finding 
the  Catholic  custom  of  carol-singing  so  deeply  rooted  as  to 
not  be  easily  destroyed,  they  endeavored  to  divert  the  affec- 
tions of  communities  into  a  channel  more  consistent  with 
their  views.  For  this  purpose  the  Psalms  of  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins  were  put  into  a  form  for  carol  singing.  A  duodec- 
imo volume  appeared  under  the  title,  '  'Psalms,  or  Songs  of 
Zion,  turned  into  language  and  set  to  Tunes  of  a  strange 
land,  by  W.  S.  (William  Slatyr),  intended  for  Christmas 
carols  and  fitted  to  divers  of  the  most  noted  and  common 
tunes  everywhere  familiarly  used  and  known. 

The  Puritans  in  Holland,  from  whom  came  our 
Plymouth  colonists,  adopted  tbe  Psalms  of  Henry  Ainsworth, 
their  pastor,  early  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Mr.  Ains- 
worth has  been  represented  as  a  man  of  great  learning  and 
of  exemplary  piety.  For  his  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew 
language,  he  was  widely  distinguished.  Some  of  the  dig- 
nitaries of  the  University  of  Leyden  remarked,  that  in 
this  respect  he  had  but  few  superiors  in  Europe.  He  was 
the  author  of  a  work  entitled  ' '  An  Arrow  Against  Idolatry, ' ' 
and  of  a  superior  commentary  on  the  Books  of  Moses.  ' '  In 
a  word,  the  times  and  place  in  which  he  lived  were  not 
worthy  of  such  a  man. ' ' 

The  Psalms  of  Ainsworth  were  published  in  Amster- 
dam in  1612,  with  the  title,  "The  Book  of  Psalms;  "  pub- 
lished both  in  prose  and  metre.  With  annotation  opening, 
the  words  and  sentences  by  conference  with  other  Scrip- 
tures.    By  Henry  Ainsworth,  Eph.   5:  IS,   19.      "Bee  yee 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  209 

filled  with  the  Spirit ;  speaking  to  yourselves  in  Psalms  and 
Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs  ;  singing  and  making  melodie  in 
your  hearts  to  the  Lord. "     In    "  a  preface  declaring  the 
reason  and  use  of  this  booke, ' '  he  says,  ' '  I  have  interspersed 
(Christian  Reader)  this  work,  with  regard  of  God's  honor, 
and  comfort  of  his  people  ;  that  his  word  might  dwell  in  us 
richly,   in  all  wisdom  ;    and  that  we  might  teach  and  ad- 
monish ourselves  in  Psalmes  and  Hymnes  and  songs  spirituall. 
This  I  have  laboured  to  eJffect,   by  setting  over  into  our 
tongue  the  Psalmes  in  metre,    as  agreeable  to  the  originall 
Hebrew,  as  are  also  usuall  translations.     For  the  better  dis- 
cerning thereof,  I  turned  them  also  into  prose,  and  set  these 
versions  one  by  another  to  be  the  more  easily  compared. 
And  because  the  Psalmes  have  hard  words  and  phrases,   I 
have  added  notes  to  explain  them  with  brevity,  which  to  me 
was  as  laborious  as  if  I  had  made  a  larger  commentary." 
The  prose  and  poetry  of  this  version  are  arranged  in  parallel 
columns,  the  prose  on  the  left  and  the  poetry  on  the  right. 
With  his  version  were  also  published  melodies  placed  over 
the  Psalms,  to  which  they  were  to  be  sung.      ' '  The  music 
was  printed  in  the  lozenge  or  diamond-shaped  notes,  without 
bars,  and  was  in  the  German  choral  style."     This  music  is 
represented  as  being  "akin"  to  the  poetry  of  the  Psalms  ; 
and   both   "alike  to  jargon,"    "though  doubtless   to    the 
Puritans  they  afforded  high  gratification,  and  were  the  only 
tunes  and  words  used  for  many  years  after  the  settlement  of 
Plymouth."      These  Psalms,  with  the  Confession  of  Faith 
prepared  by  Ainsworth,  immediately  became  parts  of  the 
system  of  faith  and  worship  among  the  Refugee  Brownists. 
In  eight  years  after  the  publication  of  these  Psalms  we 
find  the  Puritans  leaving  Holland,  and  taking  '  'a  neat  edition 
of  Ainsworth's  version  of  the  Psalms  "  with  them.     In  the 
account  of  the  departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Holland  in 
1620,  Edward  Winslow  thus  refers  to  the  religious  exercises 
at  Leyden  :     ' '  When  the  ship  was  to   carry  us  away,   the 
brethren    that   stayed  at    Leyden,  having   again    solemnly 
sought  the  Lord  with  and  for  us,  feasted  us  that  were  to  go, 
at  our  pastor's  house,  it  being  large,  when  we  refreshed  our- 
selves, after  tears,   with  singing  of  Psalms,  making  joyful 


210  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

melody  in  our  hearts,  as  well  as  with  our  voice,  there  being 
many  of  the  congregation  expert  in  music  ;  and  indeed,  it 
was  the  sweetest  melody  that  ever  mine  ears  heard." 

On  the  19th  of  December,  in  the  year  1620,  we  meet 
this  brave  ])and  of  worshipers,  at  the  shores  of  the  New 
World,  weary  and  worn  with  exposure,  but  still  fresh  in 
their  hopes  of  liberty  and  in  their  devotion  to  God.  It  is  the 
Sabbath  :  and  like  all  the  Puritans  of  their  day,  they  dare 
not  leave  their  ship,  nor  make  any  efforts  even  for  their  re- 
lief ;  but  spend  the  holy  day  in  their  accustomed  religious 
worship. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  first  notes  of  sacred  praise  that 
awoke  the  slumbering  echoes  of  the  New  England  shores, 
were  those  of  the  old  Jewish  Psalms.  If  there  be  any 
glory  in  it,  these  songs  deserve  it.  The  harp  that  pre- 
sided at  the  dedication  of  the  Hebrew  temples  ;  that  bore  part 
in  the  triumphant  returns  of  the  Jews  from  their  captivity  ; 
that  orave  the  melodies  when  the  Messiah  inausrurated  his 
New  Kingdom,  and  that  led  the  glorious  anthems  of  praise, 
when  Zion  put  on  the  beautiful  garments  of  Reform,  was 
well  selected,  by  the  God  who  gave  it  tone,  to  preside  at 
the  baptism  of  a  new  world  to  the  service  of  civil  liberty 
and  of  the  religion  of  the  Protestant  Church. 

The  Psalms  of  Ainsworth  comprised  the  whole 
Psalmody  of  the  New  England  Puritans,  for  twenty 
years  after  their  landing  at  Plymouth  ;  and  along  with  those 
of  other  versions,  they  were  continued  in  some  parts  until 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
may  be  seen  a  copy  of  Ainsworth' s  Psalms,  with  the  follow- 
ing note  written  on  the  blank  side  of  the  title  page,  by  "T. 
Prince.  Plymouth,  May  1,  1732;"  "  I  have  seen  an  edition 
of  this  version  (published)  in  1618  in  quarto  ;  and  this 
version  of  Ainsworth  was  sung  in  Plymouth  Colony,  and  I 
suppose  in  the  rest  of  New  England,  till  the  New  England 
version  was  printed  in  1646." 

In  addition  Rev.  Thomas  Symmes,  in  a  work  printed 
at  Boston  in  1723,  informs  us:  "Furthermore  (as  is  evi- 
dent from  a  Psalm  Book  of  Elder  Chipmans  now  in  my 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  211 

hands)  the  church  at  Plymouth  (which  was  the  first  church 
in  N.  E.)  made  use  of  Ainsworth's  version  of  the  Psalms 
tmtil  the  year  1692.  For  although  our  N.  E.  version  of  the 
l^salms  was  composed  by  sundry  hands,  and  completed  by 
President  Dunster  about  the  year  1640,  yet  that  church 
did  not  use  it,  it  seems,  till  two  and  fifty  years  after,  but 
stuck  to  Ainsworth,  and  until  1682  their  excellent  custom 
was  to  sing  without  reading  the  line. ' ' 

Though  this  version  has  been  ridiculed  for  its  lack  of 
taste  and  true  poetic  merit,  yet,  in  the  olden  times  of  the 
Republic,  "how  many  glad  hearts  have  rejoiced  over  these 
songs  of  praise,  how  many  sorrowful  ones  sighed  out  their 
complaints  in  these  plaintive  notes,  that  steal  sadly  yet 
sweetly  on  the  ear — hearts  that  now  cold  in  death  are  laid 
to  rest  around  that  sacred  urn,  within  those  walls  where 
they  had  so  often  swelled  with  emotion. ' ' 

These  Psalms  were  held  in  as  great  reverence  by  the 
early  Puritans  as  though  they  had  been  very  models  of 
taste.  They  were  heard  everywhere  in  their  homes.  The 
emigrant  sang  them  to  wear  away  the  monotony  of  his  trav- 
els as  he  journeyed  from  one  colony  to  another.  Not  in- 
frequently were  heard  whole  bands  of  these  sturdy  sons  of 
toil,  making  the  forests  ring  by  uniting  in  the  melody  of 
some  Psalm,  the  Indians,  as  it  is  said,  listening  with  wonder 
and  admiration.  Even  the  troops,  in  their  marches  and  in 
their  camps,  dispensing  with  what  Puritanism  called  "the 
carnal  fife  and  drum, ' '  drew  their  martial  songs  from  the 
Psalms  of  David,  which  they  sang  in  true  heroic  style  to 
the  tunes  of  Mear  and  Old  Hundred. 

It  was  this  old  Ainsworth  version  that  Longfellow 
mentions  in  "The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish, "  where, 
when  John  Alden  came  on  "The  Lover's  Errand,"  he 

"Heard  as  he  drew  near  the  door  the  musical  voice  of  Priscilla 
Singing  the  Hundredth  Psalm,  the  grand  old  Puritan  anthem, 
Music  that  Luther  sang  to  the  sacred  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
Full  of  the  breath  of  the  Lord,  consoling  and  comforting  many. 
Then  as  he  opened  the  door,  he  beheld  the  form  of  the  maiden 
Seated  beside  the  wheel,  and  the  carded  wool  like  a  snow-drift 
Piled  on  her  knee,  her  white  hands  feeding  the  ravenous  spindle. 
While  with  her  foot  on  the  treadle  she  guided  the  wheel  in  its  motion. 
Open  wide  on  her  lap  lay  the  well-worn  Psalm  Book  of  Ainsworth, 


212  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Printed  in  Amsterdam,  the  words  and  music  together 

Rough-hewn,  angular  notes,  hke  stones  in  the  walls  of  a  churchyard, 

Darkened  and  overhung  by  the  running  vine  of  the  verses. 

Such  was  the  book  from  whose  pages  she  sang  the  old  Puritan  anthem." 

The  following  rendering  of  the  First  Psalm  is  taken 
from  the  early  version  of  Ainsworth  and  given  as  a  speci- 
men of  its  style  and  merits: 

PSALM  1. 

1.  0  blessed  man  that  doth  not  in 

The  wicked's  counsell  walk; 
Nor  stand  in  sinners'  way;  nor  sit 
In  seat  of  scornful— folk. 

2.  But  setteth  in  Jehovah's  law 

His  pleasureful  delight; 
And  in  his  law  doth  meditate. 
By  day  and  eke*  by  night. 

3.  And  he  shall  be,  like-as  a  tree, 

By  water  brooks  planted; 
Which  in  his  time  shall  give  his  fruit 
His  leaf  eke  shall  not  fade. 

4.  And  whatsoever  he  shall  doe 

It  prosp'rously  shall  thrive. 
Not  so  the  wicked;  but  as  chaff, 

Which  winde  away  doth — doth  drive. 

5.  Therefore  the  wicked  shall  not  in 

The  judgment  stand— upright: 
And  in  th'  assembly  of  the  just. 
Not  any  sinfull — wight. 

6.  For,  of  the  just,  lehovah  he 

Acknowledgeth  the  way: 
And  way  of  the  ungracious 
Shall  utterly — decay. 

Ainsworth  version  was  superseded  by  what  is  generally 
known  as  "The  Bay  Psalm-book,"  printed  in  1640.  The 
following  account  of  this  version  is  taken  from  the  Magna- 
lia  of  Mather,  book  3,  p.  100.  "About  the  year  1639,  the 
New  English  Reformers,  considering  that  their  churches 
enjoyed  the  other  ordinances  of  heaven,  in  their  spiritual 
purity,  were  willing  that  the  ordinance  of  singing  Psalms 
should  be  restored  among  them  unto  a  share  in  that  purity. 
Though  they  blessed  God  for  the  religious  endeavor  of  those 
who  translated  the  Psalms  with  the  metres  usually  annexed, 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  213 

at  the  end  of  the  Bible,  yet  they  beheld  in  the  translation 
variations  of  not  only  the  text,  but  the  very  sense  of  the 
Psalmist,  that  it  was  an  offense  unto  them.  Resolving  then 
upon  a  new  translation,  the  chief  divines  of  the  country  took 
each  of  them  a  portion  to  be  translated:  among  whom  were 
Mr.  Welds;  Mr.  Elliot,  of  Roxbury,  and  Mr.  Mather,  of  Dor- 
chester. These,  like  the  rest,  were  of  so  different  a  genius 
for  their  poetry,  that  Mr.  Shephard,  of  Cambridge,  on  the 
occasion  addressed  them  to  this  purpose: 

"  You  Roxbury  Poets  keep  clear  of  the  crime 
Of  missing  to  give  us  a  very  good  rhyme. 
And  you  of  Dorchester  your  verses  lengthen, 
And  with  the  text's  own  word  you  will  these  strengthen." 

"  The  Psalms  thus  turned  into  metre,  were  printed  at  Cambridge  in 
the  year  1640.  But  afterwards  it  was  thought  that  a  little  more  art  was 
to  be  employed  upon  them;  and  for  that  cause  they  were  recommended 
to  Mr.  Dunster,  who  revised  and  refined  this  translation  ;  and  with  some 
assistance  from  one  Mr.  Richard  Lyon,  who  being  sent  over  by  Sir  Henry 
Meldway,  as  an  attendant,  with  his  son,  then  a  student  in  Harvard  Col- 
ege,  and  residing  in  Mr.  Dunster' s  house — he  brought  it  into  the  condi- 
tion wherein  our  churches  ever  since  have  used  it." 

This  work,  at  first  known  as  '  'The  Bay  Psalmist, ' '  but 
afterwards  called  '  'The  New  England  Version, ' '  was  the  first 
book  printed  in  the  Colonies,  and  with  the  exception  of  the 
printing  by  the  Spanish,  in  Mexico,  the  first  in  the  whole 
American  Continent.  It  bore  the  title,  ' '  The  Psalms  in 
metre.  Faithfully  translated  for  the  Use,  Edification,  and 
Comfort  of  Saints,  in  publick  and  private,  especially  in  New 
England,"     Crown  8 vo.  300  pages. 

This  novel  and  rare  book  was  printed  in  the  house  of 
President  Dunster,  of  Harvard  College,  upon  a  printing 
press,  or  "printery,"  which  came  to  this  New  England  set- 
tlement as  a  gift  from  friends  in  Holland,  and  which  cost  £50. 

The  type  of  this  Psalm-book  is  Roman,  and  is  said  to 
abound  in  typographical  errors.  The  words,  '  'The  Preface, ' ' 
are  written,  the  "The"  on  the  left  hand  page  with  a  period 
following  it,  and  "Preface"  on  the  right.  Words  of  one 
syllable  at  the  end  of  lines  are  sometimes  divided  by  a  hy- 
phen. At  the  top  of  the  left  hand  page  throughout  the  book 
the  word  "Psalm"  is  spelled  properly;  but  at  the  head  of  each 
right  hand  page  it  is  closed  with  the  letter  e,  thus,  '  'Psalme, ' ' 


214  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

In  the  first  edition  of  The  Bay  Psalm-book,  there  were 
no  Spiritual  Songs,  the  Psalms  being  accompanied  only  by 
the  original  long  preface,  and  "An  Admonition  to  the 
Reader,"  tilling  half  a  page  after  the  "Finis."  The  follow- 
ing is  the  '  'Admonition  ' ' : 

"  The  verses  of  these  Psalmes  may  be  reduced  to  six  kindes,  the  first 
whereof  may  be  sung  in  very  neare  fourty  common  tunes;  as  they  are  col- 
lected out  of  our  chief  musicians,  by  Thos.  Ravenscroft. 

• '  The  second  kinde  may  be  sung  in  three  tunes,  as  Ps.  25,  50  and  67 
in  our  English  Psalm-books. 

"  The  third  may  be  sung  indifferently,  as  Ps.  the  51,  100  and  ten 
commandments,  in  our  English  Psalm-books,  which  three  tunes  afore- 
saidj  comprehend  almost  all  this  whole  book  of  Psalms,  as  being  tunes 
most  familiar  to  us. 

"  The  fourth  as  Ps.  148,  of  which  there  are  but  about  five. 

"The  fifth,  as  Ps.  112,  or  the  Pater  Noster,  of  which  there  are  but 
two,  viz:  85  and  138. 

"The  sixth,  as  Ps.  113,  of  which  but  one,  viz:  115." 

After  the  publication  of  the  second  edition  of  this  ver- 
sion, in  1647,  Henry  Dunster,  president  of  Harvard  College, 
and  Richard  Lyon  were  appointed  to  revise  and  improve  the 
Psalms.  In  1650  this  revised  edition  was  printed  with  the 
title:  "The  Psalms,  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  faithfully  translated  into  English  Metre, 
For  the  Use,  Edification,  and  Comfort  of  the  Saints  in  pub- 
lick  and  private,  especially  in  New  England.  2  Tim.  3,  16 
and  17.  Col.  3:  16.  Eph.  5:  18,  19.  ^James  5:  13."  8vo. 
308  pages. 

For  over  one  hundred  years,  this  revised  Bay  Psalm-book 
passed  through  edition  after  edition  without  any  alteration 
whatever.  It  met  with  favor,  not  only  in  New  England,  but 
in  the  old  country.  In  England,  at  least  eighteen  editions 
were  printed,  the  eighteenth  appearing  in  1754.  In  Scotland, 
it  passed  through  twenty-two  editions,  the  last  being  issued 
in  1756.  In  the  latter  country,  it  was  bound  up  with  the 
Bible  and  imported  to  this  country,  in  large  numbers.  In 
most  of  these  reprints,  if  not  in  all  of  them,  the  original 
preface  was  continued. 

In  Scotland,  as  late  as  1770,  there  were  congregations 
of  considerable  eminence  praising  God  through  these  New 
Enofland  Psalms. 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMEIIICAN    COLONIES.  215 

Says  Hood,  in  his  "History  of  Music  in  New  Eng- 
land," The    design  of    the  versifyers   of  the  Bay  Psalm- 
book  was  to  produce  a  metrical  translation  nearer  to  the 
original  than  those  then  in  use.     In  this  they  succeeded. 
Theirs  was  a  literal  translation.      Many  similar  attempts  had 
been  made  before,   but  no  one   had  proved  so    successful. 
Their  numbers  were  generally  worse,  while  they  had  more 
violations  of  the  text,  and  this  to  our  Puritan  fathers,   was 
the  fault  of  faults.     This  work,  as  a  faithful  translation, 
was  highly  esteemed,  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  was 
reprinted  in  each  in  large  and  frequent  editions.     *     *     ^ 
Its  faults,  as  a  metrical  version,  designed  to  be  sung,  were 
many  and  palpable.     But  at  that  day,  it  had  no  rivals  ;  and 
is  it  venturing  too  much  to   say,    that  under   the    same  re- 
strictions, it  could  have  few,  if  any  now  ?     Theirs  was  indeed 
a  difficult  task — a  close  literal  translation,  in  measure  and  in 
rhyme !     We  venture  the  assertion,  that  no  one  with  those 
requirements  has  equaled  it.     Those  who  made  more  pleasing 
numbers,    fell  far  short  of  their  conformity  to    the   text  ; 
while  those   who  made  the  smoothest   and   most  desirable 
numbers,  have  merely  paraphrased,  imitated,  or  drawn  their 
subjects  from  the  Bible.     Watts  is  but  a  paraphrase.     Ad- 
dison's beautiful   samples,    in    the  lines   beginning,    "The 
spacious  firmament  on  high, "  and   "The  Lord  my  pasture 
shall  prepare,"  of  what  he  intended,  and  of  what  he  could 
have  prepared  so  ably,  namely,  a  complete  metrical  version 
of  the  Psalms,  were  but  a  pre-translation  or  paraphrase. ' ' 

The  variety  in  the  metres  of  the  Bay  Psalm-book  was 
somewhat  greater  than  in  previous  versions  ;  though  the 
principal  metres  were  the  Long,  Common,  Short  and  Tens,  the 
Tens  being  regular  iambics.  The  length  of  some  of  the 
Psalms  extended  as  far  as  sixty,  seventy,  a  hundred,  and 
even  one  hundred  and  thirty  lines  ;  yet  these  Psalms,  like 
the  shorter  ones,  were  sung  through  at  one  time,  a  full  half 
hour  being  required  for  the  performance  of  some  of  them. 
The  quantity  of  the  lines  varied  greatly,  some  containing 
more,  some  fewer  syllables  than  the  metre  required.  This 
defect  was  remedied  by  contracting  or  lengthening  a  word, 
as  the  case  might  require  ;  thus, 


216  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

"  I'  th'  city  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 
This  is  the  Lord  on  whom  we  had 

Our  expectation ; 
We  will  rejoice,  and  will  be  glad 
In  his  salvation." 

— Hymn  of  Isaiah,  chap.  25. 

When  the  translators  of  this  version  were  reminded  of 
the  rudeness  and  unpoetic  construction  of  their  Psalms,  they 
gave  it  as  their  apology,  "That  God's  altar  needs  not  our 
polishing  ;  for  we  have  respected  rather  a  plain  translation, 
than  to  smoothe  our  verses  with  the  sweetness  of  any  para- 
phrases, and  so  have  attended  to  conscience  rather  than  ele- 
gance ;  fidelity  rather  than  poetry,  in  transcribing  the 
Hebrew  words  into  English  language,  and  David's  poetry 
into  English  metre." 

The  Bay  Psalm-book  was  almost  universally  adopted 
in  the  New  England  churches.  Still  in  some  instances 
the  old  one  had  too  firm  a  hold  on  the  affections  of  the 
people  to  yield.  The  new  version  was  not  adopted  in  the 
church  at  Salem  till  1667  ;  and  then,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
records  of  the  First  Church,  it  was  only  to  be  used  with  the 
old,  not  to  supersede  it.  "  At  a  church  meeting,  4th  of  fifth 
month,  1667,"  or  May  4th,  "The  pastor  having  formally 
performed  and  given  reason  for  the  use  of  the  Bay  Psalm- 
book  in  regard  to  the  difficulty  of  the  tunes,  and  that  we 
could  not  sing  them  so  well  as  formerly  and  that  there  was 
a  singularity  in  our  using  Ainsworth's  tunes  ;  but  especially 
because  we  had  not  the  liberty  of  singing  all  the  Scripture 
Psalms  according  to  Col.  3,  16.  He  did  not  again  propound 
the  same,  and  after  several  brethren  had  spoken,  there  was 
at  last  a  unanimous  consent  with  respect  to  the  last  reason 
mentioned,  that  the  Bay  Psalm-book  should  be  used  together 
with  Ainsworth's  to  supply  the  defects  of  it." 

About  the  same  time  the  Ipswich  church  adopted  the 
Bay  Psalm-book,  and  continued  its  use  almost  a  century. 
In  the  Plymouth  church  it  was  not  adopted  till  1692,  fifty- 
two  years  after  the  first  edition  was  printed.  The  following 
extracts  are  from  the  records  of  the  Plymouth  church : 

"  In  1685,  May  17,   the  Elder  stayed  the  church  after  the  public 
worship  was  ended,  and  moved  to  sing  Psalm  One  hundred  and  thirtieth 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  217 

in  another  translation,  because  in  Mr.  Ainsworth's  translation,  which  we 
sang,  the  tune  was  so  difficult  few  could  follow  it — the  church  readily 
consented  thereunto. 

"  June  19,  1692.  The  pastor  stayed  the  church  after  meeting  and 
propounded  that,  seeing  many  of  the  Psalms  in  Mr.  Ainsworth's  trans- 
lation, that  we  now  sung,  had  such  difficult  tunes  that  none  in  the  church 
could  set,  that  the  church  would  consider  of  some  way  of  accommodation, 
that  we  might  sing  all  the  Psalms,  and  left  it  to  their  consideration. 

August  7.  At  the  'conclusion  of  the  Sacrament,  the  pastor  called 
upon  the  church  to  express  their  judgments  about  this  motion  ;  the  vote 
was  thus  :  when  the  tunes  are  difficult  in  the  translation  we  use,  we  will 
sing  the  Psalms  now  used  in  our  neighbor  churches  in  the  Bay  ;  not  one 
brother  opposed  tlie  conclusion.  The  Sabbath  following,  August  14,  we 
began  to  sing  the  Psalms  in  course  according  to  the  vote  of  the  church." 

During  the  period  of  its  use  in  N.  E.  the  Bay  Psalm- 
book  passed  through  at  least  thirty  editions  in  this  country, 
and  including  the  edition  printed  in  Europe,  at  least  seventy. 
The  twenty-seventh  edition  may  now  be  seen  in  the  Anti- 
quarian Hall  at  Worcester,  Mass. 

Copies  of  the  early  issues  of  the  Bay  Psalm-book  are 
scarce  and  very  vahiable.  The  American  Antiquarian  Society 
owns  a  copy  of  the  first  edition,  which  it  keeps  carefully 
locked  in  the  iron  safe  in  the  building  of  that  Society, 
in  Worcester.  Up  till  1860,  five  copies  of  this  first  edition 
were  in  the  possession  of  the  Old  South  Church,  of  Boston. 
Two  of  these  copies  still  remain  in  the  possession  of  that 
church,  the  other  three  being  surrendered  to  certain  gentle- 
men in  Boston  for  other  more  modern  works  bestowed  upon 
the  Prince  Library. 

In  the  library  of  Mrs.  Carter  Brown,  of  Providence, 
R.  I.,  is  Richard  Mather's  copy  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book. 
In  October,  1876,  it  was  sold  at  the  Library  salesroom, 
Beacon  street,  Boston,  for  one  thousand  and  fifty  dollars. 

A  copy  ma}^  also  be  seen  in  the  Lenox  Library,  in  New 
York,  for  which  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  paid  $1,200. 

The  following  rendering  of  the  One  hundred  and  thirty- 
third  Psalm  is  given  as  a  specimen  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book 
and  its  style  of  publication: 

PSALM  CXXXIII. 

A  Song  of  Degrees,  of  David. 

1    How  good  and  sweet  to  see, 
it's  for  bretheren  to  dwell 
together  in  unitie: 


218  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

2  It's  like  choice  oyle  that  fell 

the  head  upon 
that  doM'ne  did  flow 

the  beard  unto 
beard  of  Aron: 
The  skirts  of  his  garments 

that  unto  them  went  down: 

3  Like  Hermons  dews  descent 
Sions  mountaines  upon, 

for  there  to  be 
the  Lords  blessing 
life  aye  lasting 
commandeth  he. 

In  1718  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  published  the  "Psalterium 
Americanum, " — "The  Book  of  Psahiis  in  a  translation  ex- 
actly conformed  unto  the  Original;  but  all  in  blank  verse; 
fitted  unto  it  tunes  commonly  used  in  the  Church. ' ' 

In  the  Introduction  to  this  Psalm-book,  Dr.  Mather 
speaks  of  the  excellence  of  the  Psalms,  and  the  manner  of 
the  translation;  and  the  Psalms  themselves  are  a  good  metri- 
cal version,  without  injuring  the  conformity  to  the  original, 
'  'for  the  clink  of  Rhyme. ' '  Of  the  literalness  of  the  transla- 
tion he  remarks:  "For  the  New  Translation  of  the  Psalms, 
which  is  here  endeavored,  an  appeal  may  be  with  much  as- 
surance made,  unto  all  that  are  masters  of  the  Hebrew  Tongue, 
whether  it  be  not  much  more  agreeable  to  the  Original  than 
the  Old  one,  or  than  any  that  has  yet  been  offered  to  the 
world.  It  keeps  close  to  the  original;  and  even  when  a 
word  of  supply  is  introduced,  it  is  usually  a  needless  com- 
pliment unto  the  case  of  exactness,  to  distinguish  it  at  all, 
as  we  have  done,  with  an  Italic  character;  for  it  is  really  in 
the  Intention  and  Emphasis  of  the  Original.  Yea,  the  just 
laws  of  Translation  had  not  been  at  all  violated  if  a  much 
greater  liberty  had  been  taken  for  the  beating  out  of  the 
golden  and  massy  Hebrew  into  a  more  extended  English. ' ' 

The  arrangement  of  the  Psalms  in  this  translation  is  in 
the  8s  and  6s,  or  "  common  metre, "  as  he  says,  without 
rhyme.  Some  of  the  Psalms  were  so  arranged  that  Long 
Metre  tunes  could  be  sung  to  them.  This  was  done  by  the 
insertion  of  two  syllables  in  black  letters  in  the  second  and 
fourth  lines.  By  using  these,  the  Psalms  could  be  sung  to 
Long  Metre  tunes;  by  omitting  them,  which  could  be  done 
without  injuring  the  sense,  to  Common  Metre  tunes. 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  219 

Nine  of  the  Psalms  were  arranged  in  this  manner.  The 
136th  Psalm  was  so  arranged  that  by  omitting  the  word  or 
words  in  brackets,  it  could  be  changed  from  Common  to 
Short  metre.  This  method  of  arranging  the  Psalms  for 
tunes  of  different  lengths,  was  invented  by  Richard  Baxter, 
who  translated  the  Psalms  into  English  verse. 

Each  of  Mather's  Psalms  is  accompanied  with  illustra- 
tions. ' '  To  assist  the  reader  in  coming  at  the  vast  profit  and 
pleasure  which  is  to  be  found  in  this  rare  part  of  Christian 
ascetics,  every  Psalm  is  here  satellited  with  illustrations, 
which  are  not  fetched  from  the  vulgar  annotations  (whereof 
still,  reader,  continue  thy  esteem  and  thy  improvements). 
But  have  the  more  fine,  deep  and  uncommon  thoughts  which 
in  a  long  course  of  reading  and  thinking  have  been  brought 
in  the  way  of  the  collector.  They  are  golden  keys  to 
immense  treasures  of  truth." 

The  Psalterium  Americanum  was  divided  into  five  books, 
the  first  extending  to  the  Forty-second  Psalm;  the  second  to 
the  Seventy-third;  the  third  to  the  Ninetieth;  the  fourth  to 
the  One  hundred  and  seventh,  and  the  fifth  to  the  end.  Six- 
teen pages  of  hymns,  arranged  like  the  Psalms,  completed 
the  last  volume.  Unlike  the  most  of  the  Psalm-books  of  his 
times,  this  of  Mather  was  published  without  music,  a  fact 
which  may  partially  explain  the  entire  neglect  into  which 
this  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  Church  fell. 

The  following  selection  is  from  Mather's  version  of 
the  One  hundred  and  sixteenth  Psalm,  and  will  show  the 
manner  in  which  several  Psalms  were  arranged  for  either 
Long  or  Common  Metre  tunes: 

PSALM  CXVI. 

1.  I'm  full  of  Love:    It  is  because||  [of  this]  that  the  Eternal  God 
hath  hearkened  now  unto  my  voice ;||  [and  hath]  my  supphcations  heard.  || 

2.  Because  that  he  hath  unto  me||   [kindly]    inclined   His  gracious 
ear;  ||  therefore  upon  Him  I  will  call  ||  while  I  have  any  days  [of  life.] 

3.  The  cords  of  Death  surrounded  me||  and  me  the  [dreadful]  pangs 
of  hell||  found  out;  a  sad  anxiety||  I  found  and  sighing  [heavy]  grief.  || 

4.  But  I  call  upon  the  Name||  of  the  Eternal  God,   [for  this];   I 
pray  Thee,  0  Eternal  God,||  Deliver  Thou  my  [sinking  soul].  || 

5.  Most  full  of  tender  mercy||  [forever]  is  the  Eternal  God:  Right- 
eous He  is,  too,  and  our  God||  is  most  compassionate  [withall]. || 

6.  The  simple  ones  th'  Eternal  God||  takes  into  [his  kind]  custo- 
dy; II  I  was  brought  miserably  low,||  and  then  [it  was]  He  helped  me.|| 


5 


220  David's  harp  in  song  and  story, 

7.  O  thou  my  soul,  do  thou  return|!    where  'tis  [alone]  thou  findest 
rest;  ||  Because  that  the  Eternal  God||  hath  well  [enough]  rewarded  thee.|| 

8.  Because  1  hou  hast  from  threateninj?  Death||  [safely]  delivered  m;^ 
Soul;||  my  Eye  from  tears,  my  foot  from  fall||  by  a  thrust  given  [unto 
me.il 

At  the  request  of  the  General  Association  of  Connecti- 
cut Joel  Barlow  undertook  to  revise  the  Psalms  of  Watts, 
and  to  supply  those  which  that  author  had  omitted.  In  1785 
Barlow's  impioved  edition  was  published  and  was  entitled, 
"Dr.  Watts'  Imitations  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  corrected 
and  enlarged,  by  Joel  Barlow,  to  which  is  added  a  collection 
of  Hymns;  the  whole  applied  to  the  state  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  general.  Luke  xxiv.  '  All  thino^s  must  be  f ul- 
filled  which  were  written  ...  in  the  Psalms  concern- 
ing me.'  Hartford:  Printed  by  Barlow  andBabcock,  1785." 

This  edition  of  Watts  was  largely  adopted  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  was  allowed  by  the  Synod  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  by  an  act  of  1787:  "The  Synod  did  allow  and  do 
hereby  allow  that  Dr.  Watts'  imitation  of  David's  Psalms, 
as  revised  by  Mr.  Barlow,  be  sung  in  the  churches  and 
families  under  its  care." 

A  story  is  told  of  a  local  poet  who  perpetrated  an  ex- 
tempore verse  upon  Barlow.  Oliver  Arnold,  a  cousin  of 
Benedict,  was  introduced  to  Joel  Barlow  in  a  book  store  in 
New  Haven.  Barlow  asked  of  the  poet  a  specimen  of  his 
off-hand  talent,  when  Arnold,  with  the  knowledge  of  Bar- 
low's recently-acquired  celebrity  from  his  revision  of  Watts, 
immediately  repeated  the  following  stanza: 

"  You've  proven  yourself  a  sinful  cre'tur; 

You've  murdered  Watts  and  spoilt  the  metre; 
You've  tried  the  word  of  God  to  alter, 
And  for  your  pains  deserve  a  halter." 

Through  a  request  of  the  General  Association  of  Con- 
necticut, Dr.  Timothy  Dwight  undertook  the  task  of  re- 
viewing Watts'  Psalms,  and  of  adding  where  they  were  de- 
ficient. About  the  year  1797  Dr.  Dwight  began  his  work, 
and  soon  succeeded  in  presenting  a  version  suited  to  the 
state  of  the  American  churches. 

In  1800  a  committee  from  the  Presbyterian  Assembly, 
consisting  of  Drs.  John  Rodgers,  Jonathan  Edwards  and 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  221 

Asa  Hillyer,  met  a  similar  committee  from  the  Connecticut 
Association  for  the  purpose  of  examining  the  revision  and 
versifications  of  Dr.  Dwight.  This  joint  committee  reported 
its  approval  of  what  had  been  done,  and  in  1802  the  new 
edition  of  Watts  was  allowed  by  the  Assembly  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  following  act:  "Whereas,  the  version 
of  the  Psalms  made  by  Dr.  Watts  has  heretofore  been  al- 
lowed in  congregations  under  the  care  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, it  is  now  thought  expedient  that  the  hymns  of  Dr. 
Watts  be  also  allowed;  and  they  are  hereby  accordingly  al- 
lowed in  such  congregations  as  may  think  it  expedient  to 
use  them  in  social  and  public  worship;  and  whereas  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  by  order  of  the  General  Association 
of  Connecticut,  has  revised  the  version  of  the  Psalms  by  Dr. 
Watts,  and  has  versified  a  number  omitted  by  him,  and  has 
also  made  a  selection  of  hymns  from  various  authors,  which, 
together  with  the  Psalms,  were  intended  to  furnish  a  system 
of  Psalmody  for  the  use  of  churches  and  families,  which 
system  has  been  revised  and  recommended  by  a  joint  com- 
mittee of  the  General  Assembly  and  the  General  Associa- 
tion of  Connecticut,  heretofore  appointed,  as  examined  and 
approved  by  a  committee  of  this  present  Assembly;  the  said 
system  is  hereby  cheerfully  approved  in  such  congregations 
and  families  as  may  think  it  for  edification  to  adopt  and  use 
them." 

The  One  hundred  and  thirty-seventh  Psalm  is  a  popular 
specimen  of  Dwight's  versification,  beginning: 

"  I  love  thy  kingdom,  Lord, 
The  house  of  thine  abode. 
The  church  our  blest  Redeemer  saved 
With  his  own  precious  blood." 

During  the  present  century  there  have  been  several  ver- 
sions of  the  Psalms  presented  to  the  public.  Of  these  the 
version  of  George  Burgess  and  that  of  Abner  Jones  do  not 
fall  below  their  predecessors  of  any  age  in  point  of  merit. 
The  Psalms  of  both  these  authors  retain  more  than  is  usual 
in  metrical  translations,  the  sublimity  of  the  original  text, 
and  that  without  serious  departure  from  a  literal  rendering. 
The  version  of  Abner  Jones  has  had  no  superior  in  elegance 


222  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

of  diction  and  in  its  adaptation  to  musical  purposes.  It 
displays  in  its  author  a  keen  insight  into  the  genius  of 
the  Hebrew  language  and  Hebrew  poetry,  and  a  poetic 
taste  almost  faultless.  Mr,  Jones  made  his  translation 
of  the  Psalms  a  matter  of  thought  for  twenty  years.  The 
origin  of  his  work  he  dates  back  to  his  early  affection  for 
the  Psalter,  and  for  the  study  of  sacred  music.  His  Psalm 
book  contains  three  hundred  and  seventy-six  versifications, 
cast  into  every  variety  of  metre.  The  First  Psalm  alone 
has  ten  different  versions.  "The  object,"  says  the  author, 
"was  to  render  the  Book  of  Psalms  into  easy  and  flowing 
verse  of  various  measures,  evenly  rhymed,  with  uniform 
accent,  divided  according  to  their  musical  cadences,  and 
comprised  in  their  own  limits;  in  which  their  peculiar  struc- 
ture in  responsive  lines  should  be  kept  unbroken,  the  devout 
and  exalted  sentiments  with  which  they  everywhere  abound, 
expressed  in  their  own  familiar  and  appropriate  language, 
and  the  graphic  imagery  by  which  they  are  rendered  vivid, 
and  preserved  entire." 

The  f ollowinof  from  Abner  Jones  is  a  charming-  render- 
ing  of  the  Twenty-third  Psalm: 

PSALM  XXIII. 

Jehovah,  my  Shepherd,  with  goodness  will  crown 

And  everything  needful  bestow; 
In  pastures  of  verdure  will  make  me  lie  down, 

And  lead  me  where  cool  waters  flow. 

My  soul  He  restores,  and  in  right  lays  my  path, 

To  honor  His  name  and  His  skill; 
Thy  rod  and  Thy  stafi"  in  the  dark  vale  of  death, 

Shall  comfort  and  keep  me  from  ill. 

My  table  with  bounties  Thy  hands  will  keep  spread 

In  sight  of  my  envious  foes; 
With  oil  in  abundance  anointing  my  head. 

My  cup  with  its  fullness  o'erflows. 

Such  goodness  and  mercy,  so  copious  and  free, 

Shall  follow  me  all  of  my  days; 
The  house  of  Jehovah  my  dwelling  shall  be, 

My  work  evermore  for  His  praise. 

It  is  creditable  to  the  missonary  zeal  of  the  early  Puritans 
of  New  England  that  they  were  not  long  in  giving  the  Holy 


THE    PSALMS    IN    THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES.  223 

Scriptures  to  the  Indians  in  their  own  native  tongue.  As  early 
as  1653  the  Catechism  was  prepared  in  the  Indian  by  John 
Eliot,  and  printed  in  England,  at  the  expense  of  the  corpo- 
ration. In  1659  a  prose  version  of  the  Psalms  was  printed 
in  the  same  dialect,  and  in  1663  the  whole  Bible.  That 
which  is  of  special  interest  here  is  the  version  of  the  New 
England  Psalm-book,  translated  into  Indian  verse,  by  John 
Eliot,  and  published  in  1661. 

The  work  was  printed  by  Samuel  Green,  and  was  en- 
titled, "  Wame  Ketoohomse  Uketoohomaongash  David." 
These  Psalms  were  at  first  bound  up  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment, published  the  same  year,  but  afterwards  with  the 
entire  version  of  the  Bible.  According  to  Thomas,  the 
Psalms  were  issued,  in  some  cases,  with  the  Indian  Gram- 
mar. 

Those  who  have  traveled  among  the  Indians  tell  us  they 
have  no  proper  songs,  and  know  nothing  of  melody.  What 
tones  they  have  that  at  all  approach  to  music,  are  described 
as  barbarous  and  offensive.  Yet  they  not  only  seemed  to  be 
delighted  with  the  singing  of  the  Colonists,  but  when  the 
Psalms  were  translated  into  their  own  tongue,  their  music, 
according  to  Dr.  Mather,  was  '  'most  ravishing. ' '  No  doubt 
Mr.  Eliot  instructed  them  in  the  art  of  music  and  taught 
them  to  sing;  in  it  the  tunes  of  New  England.  In  the  letter  of 
Mather  and  Walter  to  Sir  William  Ashenhurst,  is  mentioned 
that  "Jonathan  George  (Indian,)  set  the  tune  for  the  Psalm 
and  carried  it  out  most  melodiously." 

In  1687,  a  letter  from  Dr.  Increase  Mather  to  Dr.  John 
Leusden,  at  Utrecht,  says,  '  'The  whole  congregation  of  In- 
dians praise  God  with  singing,  and  some  of  them  are  excel- 
lent singers." 

Experience  Mayhew  also  speaks  of  the  good  singing  of 
the  Indians.  "About  two  months  since,  at  Little  Comp- 
ton,  they  came  to  hear  me  preach;  had  you  been  there  to 
see  how  well  they  filled  their  seats,  how  powerfully  Nisho- 
kon  prayed,  and  how  melodiously  Paquawise  set  the  tune 
for  the  Psalm,  and  carried  it  out,  and  how  dexterously  it 
was  taken  up  by  the  others,  I  am  sure  you  would  have  been 
much  affected  with  it." 


224  David's  hakp  in  song  and  story. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Brainerd, 
another  apostle  to  the  Indians,  and  who  lived  among  the 
Susquehannas,  translated  sundry  forms  of  prayer  into  the 
Indian  tongue.  ' '  I  also, ' '  says  he,  '  'translated  sundry 
Psalms  into  their  language,  and  soon  after  we  were  enabled 
to  sing  them  in  the  meetinor. ' ' 

In  1787  some  Psalms  were  translated  into  the  Mohawk 
tongue  for  the  Christian  Indians  of  that  tribe.  They  were 
printed  in  London,  at  the  expense  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment, and  were  bound  up  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
The  Psalms  were  the  23d,  67th,  100th,  117th  and  134th.  In 
addition  were  the  "Gloria  Patri,"  the  "Veni  Creator,"  and 
two  hymns  on  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper, 

In  1839  a  collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns  was  made 
for  the  use  of  the  "Six  Nations,"  and  printed  at  Hamilton, 
in  the  Diocese  of  Toronto,  at  the  expense  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Corporation.  It  contains  the  five  Psalms  prepared  for 
the  Mohawks,  and  eighty-one  hymns;  sixty-eight  of  which 
are  in  Mohawk  and  English. 

The  following  is  from  Eliot's  Indian  Psalms: 

PSALM  CXVII. 

1    Wacenomok  Maniz  wame 
wutohtimoneunk 
Wacenomokkenaan  wame 
miffinninnuog  wonk. 

2    Ummonaneteaonk  miffi 
en  kuhhogkanonut 
Wunnomwaonk  God  michemohtem 
watenoniook  Maniz. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    PSALMS   IN    THE     AMERICAN    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCHES. 

The  Psalmody  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterian 
churches  of  the  United  States  deserves  a  special  notice. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century  two  bodies  of  the 
Scotch  Dissenters  were  organized,  the  Reformed  and  the 
Associate  Presbyterian,  Subsequently — in  1782 — these  two 
bodies  united  to  form  the  Associate  Reformed  Church.  This 
union  instead  of  consolidating  two  bodies  into  one,  really 
produced  three,  protesters  from  both  of  the  original  parties 
remaining  out  of  the  union  and  continuing  under  the  names 
of  Associate  and  Reformed  Presbyterians.  The  Reformed 
Presbyterian  Church  subsequently  divided  into  the  two  par- 
ties known  as  the  ' '  Old  Side  ' '  and  the  ' '  New  Side  ' '  Cove- 
nanters. In  1858  the  Associate  and  the  Associate  Reformed 
Churches  united  in  Pittsburgh,  to  form  the  body  now  known 
as  the  United  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  emigrants  from  the  Scotch  and  Irish  churches  came 
to  America  with  all  the  affection  of  the  old  country  for  Psalm- 
singing  and  for  the  Scripture  Psalms  as  the  subject-matter 
of  their  public  and  private  praise. 

The  history  of  Psalms  and  Psalm-singing  in  the  Dis- 
senting churches  differs  nothing  in  most  respects  from  that 
already  given  in  connection  with  the  Scotch  Church.  Yet 
in  two  respects  the  aforementioned  Churches  are  peculiar; 
they  excluded  the  paraphrases  from  their  worship  and  have 
adhered  exclusively  to  the  Psalms  of  David,  and  have  un- 
dertaken to  procure  uniformity  and  prevent  innovation  in 
the  matter  of  Psalmody  by  legislation  and  discipline. 

Whether  the  American  Psalm-singing  churches  are,  or 
are  not  extreme  in  their  zeal  for  the  Psalms;  whether  they, 
in  excluding  hymns  and  imitations  from  religious  worship; 
or  the  other  American  churches,  in  practically  excluding  the 
Psalms  in  a  faithful  rendering  of  the  original,  from  their 
manual  of  praise,  have  departed  farther  from  the  principle 

(225) 


226  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

and  practice  of  the  Calvinistic  and  Presbyterian  Keformers, 
and,  indeed,  from  the  custom  of  the  Primitive  Church,  let 
those  decide  who  write  for  controversy. 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  the  Psalm-singers  them- 
selves have  been  to  some  extent  responsible  for  the  agitations 
in  the  Church  concerning  her  songs,  and  for  the  departure 
of  many  from  the  early  faith,  in  that  they  have  not  at  suitable 
periods  so  remodeled  their  versions  of  the  Psalms  as  to  con- 
form to  the  innocent  and  reasonable  demands  of  the  agfe. 
These  versions  are  the  only  medium  through  which  the  peo- 
ple are  to  form  an  appreciation  of  the  Psalter  as  a  book  of 
sacred  praise;  hence  it  is  to  be  expected  that  those  who  lose 
their  taste  for  a  version  will  in  a  measure  lose  their  taste  for 
the  Psalms  themselves.  In  the  passing  of  a  hundred  years, 
the  world  progresses  vastly  in  poetical  and  musical  attain- 
ments, and  we  cannot  expect  the  mind  of  to-day  to  rest  content 
amid  what  it  regards  the  barbarisms  of  a  century  ago.  Old 
orthography,  old  fashions  and  old  versions  must  pass  away 
so  far  as  they  prove  themselves  out  of  harmony  with  the 
present.  We  justly  subject  ourselves  to  the  charge  of  eccen- 
tricity, in  clothing  either  ourselves  or  our  songs  in  ancient 
robes,  unless  there  be  a  very  evident  reason  for  doing  so. 
When  the  Church  adheres  to  a  version  for  two  centuries 
without  a  change,  she  in  a  measure  invites  discussion  and 
dissension.  Clothe  the  whole  Bible  in  the  garb  of  some  of 
Rous's  or  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Psalms  and  the  world 
will  soon  be  demanding  a  Watts  imitation  of  more  books 
than  the  one. 

It  is  a  reasonable  proposition  that  a  version  of  the 
Psalms  should  not  he  regarded  as  closed  to  improvement. 
As  soon  as  imperfections  are  plain,  let  them  be  remedied; 
when  a  proper  change  is  suggested,  let  it  be  made.  Let  a 
Psalm-book  grow  up  with  art  and  refinement  and  its  growth 
will  be  toward  perfection.  Certainly  wise  and  discreet  con- 
formity to  the  reasonable  tastes  of  the  people  will  secure 
more  than  law. 

The  first  enactment  in  the  American  church  restricting 
the  Psalmody  of  the  church  to  an  inspired  basis  is  that  of 
the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  of  1TT4.     It  is  as  fol- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCHES.    227 

lows:  "Singing  God's  praise  is  a  part  of  public,  social 
worship,  in  which  the  whole  congregation  shall  join;  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  which  are  of  divine  inspiration,  is  well 
adapted  to  the  state  of  the  church  and  of  every  member  in 
all  ages,  and  these  Psalms,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  imita- 
tions and  uninspired  compositions,  are  to  be  used  in  social 
worship. ' ' 

The  Associate  Church,  Oct.  25,  1784,  approved  the 
following  testimony: 

"1.  We  declare  that  the  Psalms  of  David  are  proper  to  be  sung  in 
public  worshiping  assemblies,  and  in  families,  and  that  we  believe  they 
were  designed  for  this  purpose  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Every  human  com- 
position must  be  inferior  to  them  as  the  writings  of  the  best  men  are  in- 
ferior to  the  Word  of  God. 

"2.  That  imitations  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  which  are  by  many 
substituted  in  their  place,  we  reject  for  the  following  reasons,"  &c. 

"5.  We  use,  it  is  true,  a  poetical  version  of  the  Psalms,  and  it  is 
scarcely,  if  at  all,  possible  to  form  a  version  of  this  kind  as  strictly 
agreeable  to  the  letter  of  the  original  as  a  prose  one  can  be  formed. 
But  this  defect  cannot  be  remedied  by  departing  still  further  from  the 
original  in  an  imitation  which  bears  but  a  faint  resemblance  to  it.  We 
have  the  original  matter  and  the  original  order  of  the  matter  in  the  ver- 
sion used  by  us,  and  we  are  not  ashamed  to  prefer  this  matter  to  the 
best  sayings  of  men,  and  this  order  to  any  men  ever  did  or  ever  will  de- 
vise." 

The  testimony  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  was 
approved  in  1799.  In  it  are  the  following  declarations  on 
Psalmody: 

"1.  It  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  praise  God  publicly  by  singing 
of  Psalms  together  in  the  congregation. 

"2.  It  is  the  will  of  God  that  the  sacred  songs  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms  be  sung  in  his  worship  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the 
rich  variety  and  perfect  purity  of  their  matter,  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  them  in  every  age,  and  the  edification  of  the  church  thence  arising 
set  the  propriety  of  singing  them  in  a  commanding  light;  nor  shall  any 
composures  merely  human  be  sung  in  any  of  the  A.  R.  churches. 

3.  These  songs  should  be  sung  not  barely  with  the  same  frame  of 
spirit  with  which  they  should  be  read,  but  with  such  an  elevation  of 
soul  as  is  suited  to  praise  as  a  distinct  ordinance,  and  in  singing  those 
parts  of  them  that  are  expressed  in  ceremonial  style,  or  describe  the 
circumstances  of  the  writers,  or  of  the  church  in  ancient  times,  we 
should  have  an  eye  on  the  general  principles  which  are  implied  in  them 
and  which  are  applicable  to  individuals  or  the  church  in  every  age. 

"4.  In  singing  the  voice  is  to  be  timeably  ordered,  but  the  chief 
care  must  be  to  sing  with  understanding  and  with  grace  in  the  heart, 
making  melody  unto  the  Lord.  No  tunes  shall  be  sung  in  worshiping 
assemblies  but  such  as  are  grave  and  simple;  and  no  new  tunes  shall  be 


228  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

introduced  into  any  of  the  churches  without  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  the  church  officers,  nor  even  then  unless  it  shall  be  evident  that  the 
introduction  of  such  tunes  would  be  acceptable  to  the  congregation  and 
would  promote  its  real  edification. 

"6.  No  chorus  of  singers  nor  alternate  singing  shall  be  introduced 
into  any  of  the  churches,  because  it  is  the  duty  of  the  whole  congrega- 
tion to  praise  God  with  united  voices. 

"8.  That  the  whole  congregation  may  the  more  profitably  join  in 
the  delightful  exercise  of  praise,  it  is  recommended  that  everyone  who 
can  read  have  a  Psalui-Book." 

In  addition  to  this  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  in 
1816  passed  a  resolution  permitting  the  use  of  a  version  of 
the  Psalms  prepared  for  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church: 
"Resolved,  That  the  version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  in  the 
Old  Testament,  recently  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  Re- 
formed Dutch  Church  in  America,  be  permitted  to  be  used. ' ' 

The  United  Presbyterian  Church  at  its  formation  in 
1858  gave  its  declaration  as  follows:  "We  declare  that  it 
is  the  will  of  God  that  the  songs  contained  in  the  Book  of 
Psalms  be  sung  in  his  worship,  both  public  and  private,  to 
the  end  of  the  world;  and  in  singing  God's  praise  these 
songs  should  be  employed  to  the  exclusion  of  the  devotional 
compositions  of  uninspired  men." 

During  the  present  century  many  efforts  have  been 
made  to  improve  the  version  of  the  Scotch  Assembly  and 
many  proposals  to  adopt  a  new  one.  As  early  as  1810  it 
was  felt  by  some  in  the  A.  R.  Church  that  their  principles 
on  Psalmody  were  in  peril  for  the  want  of  an  improvement 
in  their  Psalm-Book.  In  this  year  a  committee  made  a  re- 
port to  the  Synod  in  which  it  said  there  existed  a  "very 
critical  condition  of  a  large  section  of  their  body,  arising 
from  the  unpopularity  of  the  Psalms.  *  *  *  *  From 
Washington  northward  our  present  version  is  the  chief  ob- 
stacle to  our  prosperity  *  "^  and  our  social  praise  lan- 
guishes and  is  ready  to  die  *  *  *  Either  the  rising 
generation  will  take  the  reform  into  their  own  hands  and 
then  there  will  be  no  computing  the  disasters  of  such  a  pre- 
cedent, or  our  churches  will  be  swept  entirely  away." 

The  remedy  proposed  was  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms. 
However,  but  little  progress  was  made  in  the  way  of  a 
new  version  in  any  of  the   Psalm-singing  Churches  until 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     229 

1859,  when  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  took  measures 
that  led  to  the  beginning  of  a  new  collection. 

A  memorial  from  the  First  Presbytery  of  Ohio,  asking 
for  an  improved  version  of  the  Psalms  was  presented  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  which 
met  in  Xenia,  Ohio,  May  18,  1859.  This  was  the  first  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church.  This 
Memorial  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Psalmody.  This 
committee  consisted  of  the  Revs.  D.  R,  Kerr,  D.  D.,  John 
G.  Smart,  R.  K.  Campbell  and  Samuel  Collins.  At  a  later 
session  of  this  Assembly  the  committee  presented  a  report  of 
considerable  length,  concluding  with  these  resolutions: 

1st,  That  the  version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  now  used  by  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  be  retained  without  any  change  that  would  afl'ect 
its  integrity. 

2d,  That  to  be  used  in  connection  with  this,  it  is  desirable  to  have  an 
entirely  new  version  of  equal  fidelity,  and  up  to  the  present  state  of  liter- 
ature and  laws  of  versification. 

3d,  That  a  committee  of be  appointed  to  take  charge  of  this 

work,  and  either  by  selections  from  versions  extant,  or  the  labors  of  a 
competent  person,  endeavor  to  have  such  a  version  in  readiness  to 
report  to  the  next  Assembly;  that  in  this  work  they  be  instructed  to  make 
fidelity  to  the  original  an  object  of  special  attention;  and  that,  as  they 
progress,  they  publish  the  results  of  their  labors  in  the  periodicals  of  the 
Church. 

4th,  That  this  version,  when  reported  to  the  Assembly,  if  deemed 
worthy,  shall  be  overtured  to  the  Presbyteries. 

The  Assembly  appointed  as  the  committee  contemplated 
in  the  third  resolution,  the  following  ministers:  The  Revs, 
G.  D.  Archibald,  Thomas  Beveridge,  D.  D.,  R.  D.  Harper, 
Joseph  T.  Cooper,  D.  D.,  Alexander  Young,  D.  D.,  and 
David  R.  Kerr,  D.  D. 

This  committee  reported  to  the  next  General  Assembly, 
which  met  in  Philadelphia,  recommending  submission  to  the 
Presbyteries,  for  their  judgment,  a  number  of  the  versions 
prepared  by  Professor  Abner  Jones. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
Assembly,  and  instead  of  adopting  it  they  appointed  the  fol- 
lowing committee  on  the  "new  and  improved  version  of  the 
Psalms":  Drs.  Thomas  Beveridge,  D.  R.  Kerr  and  Joseph 
Clokey,  and  the  Revs.  G.  D.  Archibald  and  R.  B.  Ewing.  The 
work  of  revising  the  Scotch  version  and  preparing  new  ver- 


230  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

sions  and  submitting  them  in  overture  to  the  Presbyteries 
was  continued  until  the  year  1870.  The  General  Assembly 
of  that  year,  meeting  in  Pittsburgh,  appointed  a  committee 
of  five  to  embody  such  amendments  as  seemed  to  be  needed, 
together  with  the  new  versions  adopted,  and  publish  them 
in  one  volume  for  the  use  of  the  Church.  Final  action  was 
taken  by  the  General  Assembly,  meeting  at  Xenia,  in  1871, 
as  follows:  "Resolved,  That  the  revised  edition  of  the  pres- 
ent version  of  the  Psalms  and  the  New  Versions  published 
in  the  same  volume,  be  authorized  to  be  used  according  to 
the  action  of  the  last  Assembly. ' ' 

The  Psalms  revised  and  the  new  versions  approved  by 
that  General  Assembly  are  now  in  use  in  the  United  Pres- 
byterian Church,  also  in  the  Associate  Reformed  Presby- 
terian Church  of  the  South,  and  some  of  them  are  found  in 
Moody  and  Sankey's  "Gospel  Songs,"  in  the  Christian  En- 
deavor Hymnal,  and  other  hymn-books.  In  its  poetic  merits 
and  the  adaptation  of  its  sacred  songs  to  the  Avell-known  and 
popular  melodies  of  the  times  the  present  Psalm-book  of 
these  Ps^lm-singing  Churches  is  not  a  particle  behind  the 
Book  of  Praise  in  any  body  of  worshipers. 

Among  those  early  Presbyterians,  from  which  origin- 
ated the  Old  School,  New  School  and  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Churches,  the  version  of  the  Psalms  used  depended 
on  the  direction  from  which  they  had  emigrated.  At  least 
ten  or  fifteen  congregations  in  colonies  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  were  formed  by  settlers  from  New  England, 
who  brought  with  them  the  Bay  Psalm-book.  In  other  con- 
gregations the  predominating  element  was  composed  of  '  'dis- 
senters" from  Scotland  and  Ireland,  who  made  choice  of  the 
Scotch  version;  while  in  a  few  instances  were  settlements 
from  Dutchland,  where  a  version  after  the  model  of  some 
one  used  on  the  continent  would  be  naturally  adopted. 

In  1729,  the  General  Synod  agreed  upon  its  adopting 
Act,  but  there  was  no  action  taken  with  reference  to  making 
any  particular  version  of  the  Psalms  the  authorized  basis  of 
praise. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  great  American  Revolution,  the 
Psalms  of  David  were  the  almost  exclusive  sacred  songs, 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMEKICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     231 

and  the  old  Scotch  or  Rous's  version,  the  almost  exclusive 
version  of  these  songs,  used  in  the  Presbyterian  colonial 
churches.  "  Presbyterian  "  and  "  Psalm-singer  "  were,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  royal  troops,  during  the  war,  synonymous 
terms. 

"A  house,  that  had  a  large  family  Bible  and  David's 
Psalms  in  metre  in  it,  was  supposed,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
to  be  tenanted  by  Rebels.  To  sing  '  Old  Rous  '  was  almost 
as  criminal  as  to  have  leveled  a  loaded  musket  at  a  British 
grenadier." 

On  one  occasion,  while  Duffield  was  preaching  to  the 
soldiers  in  an  orchard  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Bay,  from 
Staten  Island,  using  the  fork  of  a  tree  for  a  pulpit,  the 
noise  of  the  singing  of  Psalms  gave  the  enemy  the  first 
notice  of  their  presence  and  their  voice  of  thanksgiving  was 
soon  substituted  by  the  singing  of  rifle  balls. 

That  movement  which  led  to  the  practical  exclusion  of 
a  literal  rendering  of  the  Psalms  from  the  worship  of  the 
General  Assembly  Presbyterian  Church,  did  not  begin  in  the 
church  courts  but  among  the  people;  and  it  began  among  them 
only  after  the  young  people,  having  grown  up  with  more 
delicate  notions  of  poetry  and  music,  had  grown  ashamed 
of  the  "old  version."  Had  there  been  a  version  that 
would  have  won  the  esteem  of  the  rising  generation  by  its 
poetic  attractions,  the  introduction  of  Watt's  would,  at 
least,  have  been  very  much  delayed.  As  it  was,  the  change 
was  a  slow  one,  and  did  not  take  place  without  the  usual  dis- 
sensions in  such  reform  movements. 

Eaton,  in  his  History  of  the  Presbytery  of  Erie,  ob- 
serves of  the  early  Psalm-singers  in  that  section  :  ' '  But  there 
were  almost  intolerable  prejudices  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
against  the  use  of  anything  but  Rous.  Some  who  did  not 
appear  to  have  much  conscience  in  regard  to  other  things  of 
greater  importance,  were  here  immovable.  They  could  not 
sing  words  of  human  composition  in  the  Lord's  worship. 
They  were  wedded  to  the  rough,  jagged  lines  of  Rous  and 
could  as  readily  be  diverted  from  them  as  from  the  Holy 
Bible  itself.  And  Synod  acted  reasonably  and  well  in  the 
matter,  to  urge  charity,  tenderness  and  forbearance  towards 


232  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

the  people.  These  old  Psalms  had  been  hallowed  in  their 
minds  as  being  connected  with  blessed  memories  of  early- 
years,  as  associated  with  the  family  altar,  as  having  been 
sung  by  lips  voiceless  now  upon  earth,  but  therefore  on  the 
heights  of  Mount  Zion.  *  *  *  *  When  Mr.  Riofors 
took  charge  of  Scrubgrass  and  Unity  churches,  they  used 
Rous's  version  of  the  Psalms  exclusively  in  divine  service. 
This  continued  for  some  time,  when  the  pastor,  having 
scruples  against  this  exclusive  use,  began  to  labor  in  private 
to  prepare  the  way  for  a  change.  He  used  the  version 
of  Watts,  together  with  his  Hymns,  in  social  meetings, 
and  occasionally  sung  one  before  divine  service.  When 
he  thought  the  people  were  ripe  for  a  change,  a  vote 
was  taken  in  Unity  Church,  when  it  was  directed  that  one  of 
Rous's  Psalms  should  be  sung  at  the  opening  of  the  morn- 
ing service,  and  Watts'  the  remainder  of  the  time.  This 
vote  was  passed,  with  but  three  or  four  dissenting  voices. 
Accordingly  on  the  next  Sabbath,  one  of  Rous's  Psalms  was 
sung  ;  and  at  the  second  singing  one  of  Watts'  Psalms  was 
announced,  and  the  pastor  commenced  reading  it,  when  a 
certain  tall,  broad-shouldered,  brusque-looking  man,  with 
Milesian  accent  to  his  voice,  having  looked  in  vain  for  the 
Psalm  in  his  own  thin  volume,  and  thinking  perhaps  that  the 
speech  of  the  Psalm  betrayed  it,  arose  from  his  seat,  stepped 
into  the  aisle,  and  addressing  the  minister,  cried  out : 
'  Quut  that ;  '  and  receiving  no  attention  from  any  source, 
proceeded  up  the  aisle  toward  the  pulpit,  cr^dng,  '  If  you 
dunno  quut  that,  I'll  go  up  and  pull  ye  doon  by  the  neck.' 
*  *  *  *  In  other  con^reffations  there  were  difficulties  of 
a  similar  kind.  But  these  days  passed  away.  Many,  no 
doubt,  left  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  found  a  home  in 
other  branches  of  the  church,  on  account  of  Psalmody,  yet 
peace  and  harmony  on  this  question  at  length  prevailed, ' ' 

In  the  year  1800,  a  commission  from  the  Presbytery  of 
Charleston,  S.  C,  appeared  before  the  Assembly,  wishing  to 
know  the  terms  under  which  they  might  be  taken  into  con- 
nection with  the  General  Assembly  :  but,  making  the  ex- 
plicit and  positive  stipulation,  that  "  they  must  not  be  dis- 
turbed in  their   edifying    enjoyment  of   Rous."     The  ac- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     233 

cession  of  this  Presbytery  did  not  take  place  till  several 
years  after  this,  owing,  it  seems,  to  the  approval  given  to 
Dr.  D wight's  Psalms  by  the  Assembly  soon  after  the  com- 
mission appeared. 

Before  me  lie  the  minutes  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
from  1706  to  1788,  comprising  the  records  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Philadelphia,  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  of  the 
Synod  of  New  York,  and  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  and 
New  York.  For  forty-seven  years  these  minutes  are  filled 
with  controversies  over  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  the 
Directory  for  Worship ;  but  there  is  not  a  line  to  show  any 
disaffection  with  the  old  Bible  Psalms.  In  1753,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Synod  of  New  York,  appears  in  the  public  records 
the  first  evidence  of  the  controversy  over  the  use  of  Dr. 
Watts'  imitation.  The  congregation  of  New  York  com- 
plained to  the  Synod  that  the  session  had  attempted  "to 
introduce  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms  "  without  the  consent 
of  a  majority  of  the  congregation. 

A  committee  appointed  by  Synod  visited  the  disturbed 
congreo-ation.  Among  the  members  of  it  were  the  Rev. 
William  Tennent  and  Aaron  Burr.  In  their  report  is  the 
followino;:  "As  to  the  third  article  ao-ainst  the  session  con- 
cerning  the  new  version  of  the  Psalms,  the  committee  cannot 
think  it  regular  for  the  ministers  and  elders  to  introduce  a 
new  version  without  the  express  consent  and  approbation  of 
the  majority  of  the  congregation;  yet,  since  Dr.  Watts' 
version  is  introduced  in  this  church  and  is  well  adapted  for 
Christian  worship,  and  received  by  many  congregations  both 
in  America  and  Great  Britain,  they  cannot  but  judge  it  best 
for  the  well  being  of  the  congregation,  under  the  present 
circumstances,  that  they  be  continued."  This  is  the  first 
official  recognition  of  Watts'  Psalms  by  the  Presbyterians 
of  America. 

A  similar  controversy  took  place  later  in  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia.  In  1773,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  held  in 
Philadelphia,  an  appeal  came  from  this  church  from  a  de- 
cision of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  allowing  the  use  of 
Watts'  Psalms  in  that  congregation.      On  a  committee  ap- 


234  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

pointed  to  visit  the  church  appears  the  name  of  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Witherspoon.  The  result  in  Synod  was  the 
same  as  in  the  case  of  the  New  York  church;  the  members 
were  exhorted  to  keep  the  peace  and  allow  both  Kous  and 
Watt  to  be  sung. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  did  not  formally  become  a 
hymn-singing  church  till  within  the  present  century.  When 
the  Psalms  of  Dr.  D wight  were  reported  his  263  Hymns 
were  reported  with  them,  as  also  were  the  Hymns  of  Dr. 
Watt,  The  Assembly  of  1802  decreed:  "The}^  are  ac- 
cording hereby  allowed  in  such  congregations  as  may  think 
it  expedient  to  use  them  in  public  and  social  worship." 

For  sixty  years  more  in  the  history  of  the  American 
Presbyterian  Church  the  Book  of  Praise  consisted  of  Psalms 
and  Hymns.  Up  till  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  the  Bible 
Psalter  was  granted  a  distinct  place  in  the  worship  of  the 
church.  Then  the  Hebrew  Psalter  dropped  out,  and  now 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  been 
trying  an  experiment  that  no  religious  body,  in  the  line  of 
the  Calvinistic  faith,  had  tried  in  thirty  centuries  before  it — 
that  of  singing  God's  praise  out  of  a  hymnal  where  the  in- 
spired Psalms  have  no  distinct  recognition.  In  the  hymnal 
edited  by  Dr.  Duryea,  and  published  in  1874  by  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
there  are  Psalms,  it  is  true.  Many  of  Dr.  Watts'  are  in  the 
collection.  A  few  are  there  from  the  United  Presbyterian 
Psalter.  But  these  Psalms  are  thrown  in  with  the  general 
mass  of  972  sacred  songs  and  all  of  them  called  Hymns. 
There  is  nothinof  left  to  tell  the  rising  generation  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth  had  ever  heard  of  the  Biljle 
Psalter.     Multitudes  who  sing  out  of  this  collection: 

"  The  Lord's  my  Shepherd,  I'll  not  want; 
He  makes  me  down  to  lie 
In  Pastures  green;  He  leadeth  me 
The  quiet  waters  by." 


or. 


"  All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell, 

Sing  to  the  Lord  with  cheerful  voice. 
Him  serve  with  mirth,  his  praise  forth  tell; 
Come  ye  before  him  and  rejoice." — 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCHES.    235 

never  dream  that  they  are  as  faithful  a  rendering  of  Bible 
Psalms  as  the  Prose  version,  and  that  they  have  come  down 
to  us  fragrant  with  the  memories  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
year*  of  Psalm-singing  Presbyterianism. 

The  author  of  this  work — a  pastor  of  more  than  twenty 
years  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  has  witnessed  with  pain 
the  "Passing"  of  the  Bible  Psalms.  Since  the  beginning  of 
her  "Hymnal"  era  our  Church  has  been  at  sea  in  the  matter 
of  her  Psalmody.  Her  authorization  of  Hymn-Books  means 
nothing  to  her  congregations.  For  the  first  time  in  her  his- 
tory her  authority  over  her  Book  of  Praise  is  gone,  and  the 
people  buy  their  hymn-books  where  they  please. 

The  Hymnal  of  1874  is  already  worn  out,  and  the  As- 
sembly has  sent  forth  a  new  one,  doubtless  to  meet  the  fate 
of  the  former  one. 

The  people  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  who  love  what 
is  solid  and  majestic  in  their  sacred  songs,  miss  something 
in  their  modern  Hymnals.  As  an  old  Psalm-singer,  the 
writer  would  suggest  it  is  the  Bible  Psalter  we  miss.  Give 
us  back  the  old  Psalms,  dressed  in  the  attractive  forms  of 
these  modern  days,  as  they  can  be  dressed;  and  winnow  away 
several  hundred  of  the  hymns  of  our  present  collection,  and 
the  Presbyterian  Church  will  do  more  to  settle  her  churches 
in  the  matter  of  their  Psalmody  than  will  all  the  decrees  of 
her  courts. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  for  the  author  to  sug- 
gest to  the  ministry  of  his  own  Church  that,  whilst  they  are 
endeavoring  so  zealously  to  maintain  that  form  of  doctrine 
which  is  given  in  the  Old  Confession  of  Faith,  their  efforts 
will  prove  worthless  unless  they  see  that  the  Psalmody  of 
the  Church  breathes  the  same  evangelical  principles. 

Few  people  read  the  Confession  of  Faith,  but  every 
week  the  thoughts  and  doctrines  of  our  Hymns  are  sung  into 
our  ears  and  hearts;  and  the  faith  which  will  be  held  in 
the  future  will  not  be  that  of  your  Confession  and  Creed, 
but  of  your  Hjminology. 

At  present,  when  the  hymn-writers  and  hymn-collectors 
are  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  true  doctrines  of  the 
Bible,  nothing  but  good  can  result  to  the  members  of  the 


236  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Church.  But  a  wave  of  decadence  may  sweep  over  the  future 
Church,  as  it  has  often  done  in  the  past,  when  we  may  bit- 
terly regret  that  we  have  lost  control  over  the  material  of  our 
Psalmody. 

The  history  of  Hymnology  is  not  without  its  emphasis 
upon  the  caution  often  given,  that  the  Church  should  guard 
her  songs  of  praise  with  a  jealous  care.  Poetry,  when  set 
to  popular  music  and  given  to  the  people,  exerts  a  most 
powerful  influence  in  extending  and  perpetuating  error  as 
well  as  truth.  It  was  Fletcher,  of  Saltoun,  who  is  reported 
to  have  said,  '  'if  he  could  but  make  the  ballads  of  a  nation, 
he  would  care  very  little  who  made  the  religion  of  it."  To 
whatever  age  of  the  New  Testament  dispensation  we  turn, 
we  find  that  the  piety  and  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Church  sel- 
dom rise  above  the  level  of  the  piety  and  orthodoxy  of  her 
hymns— the  heart,  in  a  relapse,  first  corrupting  the  hymn, 
and  the  hymn  in  turn  further  corrupting  the  heart.  This 
has  occurred  so  frequently  as  to  teach  us  that  vv-e  shall  have 
secured  ourselves  against  one  of  the  most  potent  agencies  for 
ecclesiastical  corruption  only  when  we  put  the  material  of  the 
Church's  praise  beyond  the  vacillating  influence  of  the  human 
heart.  The  very  earliest  records  of  Hymnology  furnish  in- 
stances of  the  corruption  of  this  department  of  our  praise. 
As  early  as  the  second  century,  in  the  Eastern  Church,  Bar- 
desanes  and  his  son  Harmonius  distinguished  themselves  by 
rejecting  preaching  and  composing  hymns  for  disseminating 
their  Gnostic  heresies.  Bardesanes  composed  one  hundred 
and  fifty  mystical  hymns  in  imitation  of  the  inspired  Psalter, 
"in  them,"  says  Ephraim  Syrus,  "presenting  to  simple  souls 
the  cup  of  poison  tempered  with  seductive  sweetness."  It 
was  this  abuse  of  the  praise  of  the  Church  that  doubtless 
called  forth  the  hjanns  of  the  earliest  hymn-writers  Says 
Bingham,  "As  for  those  (hymns)  composed  by  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  Paulinus,  Prudentius  and  other  Christian  poets, 
they  were  not  designed  for  public  use  in  the  Church,  but 
onl}^  to  antidote  men  against  the  poison  of  heresies,  or  set 
forth  the  praises  of  the  martyrs,  or  recommend  the  practice 
of  virtue  in  a  private  way. "  Ephraim  Syrus,  in  order  the 
better  to  secure  his  purpose  against  Bardesanes  and  Harmo- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     237 

nius,  studied  the  measures  and  tunes  of  these  heretics,  and 
employed  them  in  composing  orthodox  songs. 

Paul,  of  Samosata,  like  Bardesanes,  distributed  his 
errors  by  composing  one  hundred  and  fifty  Psalms  and  cir- 
culating them  among  the  people.  Arius,  the  great  leader  of 
the  Arian  controversy,  wrote  songs  for  the  sea,  the  mill  and 
the  high- way  and  set  them  to  music,  so  as  to  attract  men  of 
all  trades  to  his  views.  These  rude  chants  scattered  his 
errors  throughout  the  whole  Church.  Chrysostom,  on  his 
arrival  at  Constantinople,  found  Arian  canticles  in  such  great 
esteem,  that  he  could  counteract  their  influence  only  by  com- 
posing orthodox  hymns,  and  allowing  the  people  to  parade 
the  streets,  in  imitation  of  the  Arians,  and  sing  them  in  their 
religious  processions. 

These  abuses  led  the  Eastern  Church,  at  a  very  early 
period,  to  be  very  cautious  as  to  what  hymns  were  intro- 
duced into  their  services.  The  depredations  of  the  Gnostics, 
Arians,  Apollinarians,  Donatists  and  other  sects,  led  the 
Council  of  Laodicea,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century 
to  prohibit  ' '  all  hymns  of  dangerous  tendency  and  restrict- 
ing their  churches  to  the  Psalter  and  other  canonical  songs 
of  Scripture. ' ' 

The  heretical  hymns  of  the  Priscillianists,  a  sect  that 
arose  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  gave  occasion  for 
the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Braga  early  in  the  sixth  century, 
"that  beyond  the  Psalms  or  Scripture  canons,  no  poetical 
composition  should  be  sung  in  the  Church."  And  it  was 
probably  on  account  of  the  dissensions  produced  by  these 
sects  through  their  poetry,  that  hymns  were  not  formally 
sanctioned  in  the  Western  Church  till  the  meeting  of  the 
Council  of  Toledo,  in  A.  D.  633. 

During  the  Middle  Ages,  hymnology  degenerated  till  it 
became  the  mere  vehicle  of  conveying  the  praises  of  saints 
and  martyrs.  God's  house  was  insulted,  and  the  piety  of 
the  Church  ruined  by  the  outrages  under  the  form  of  praise. 

The  corruptions  of  the  Middle  Ages  made  their  appear- 
ance in  the  hymns  of  the  Church  before  there  was  any  evi- 
dence of  degeneracy  in  the  matter  of  the  creeds.  "We  need 
only  to  study  the  sacred  poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  under- 


238  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

stand  why  the  Reformation  was  needed.  One  painfully  ex- 
pressive fact  meets  us  at  the  outset.  Of  Mone's  "Collection 
of  Latin  Hymns  of  the  Middle  Ages, ' '  in  three  volumes,  one 
is  filled  with  hymns  to  God  and  the  angels,  one  with  hymns 
to  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  and  one  with  hymns  to  the 
saints." 

As  early  as  840,  A.  D.,  Agobard  of  Lyons,  by  birth  a 
Spaniard,  came  to  the  Bishop  of  Lyons  to  urge  the  necessity 
of  a  reform  in  the  Church  Liturgy  because  of  the  influence 
the  hymns  to  the  Virgin  and  the  saints  was  having  in  dis- 
seminating error. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  Cathari  and  Wal- 
denses  were  extending  their  influence  by  their  preaching  and 
singing,  and  when  the  Council  of  Toulouse  had  prohibited 
the  Bible  being  read  in  the  vernacular,  the  Romish  Church 
introduced  among  these  mountain  worshipers  legends  in 
rhyme  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  Reformers,  know- 
ing the  power  that  error,  set  to  music,  would  have  toward 
accomplishing  its  purpose.  The  oldest  work  of  this  kind  is 
in  German,  comprising  three  books  of  one  hundred  thousand 
lines:  the  first  treating  of  Christ  and  Mary;  the  second,  of 
the  apostles  and  other  personages  of  the  Bible,  and  the  third, 
of  the  saints  according  to  the  arrangement  of  their  names  in 
the  calendar.  As  most  of  the  people  could  not  read,  wan- 
dering minstrels  were  wont  to  scour  the  country  and  relate 
these  wonderful  stories. 

Since  the  Reformation,  Hymnology  has  not  escaped 
poetic  vandalism.  Though  the  early  songs  breathed  only 
piety  and  truth,  and  so  exerted  most  extensive  power  in  the 
reform,  yet,  in  after  years,  the  old  Hymns  were  so  perverted, 
and  new  ones  introduced  so  degenerate,  as  to  operate  ruin- 
ously upon  the  faith  and  fervor  of  the  multitude.  One  of 
the  first  attempts  of  German  Rationalism  was  to  tone  down 
the  energetic  force  of  the  old  Hymns  to  make  them  har- 
monize with  the  corruption.  This  among  the  Germans 
was  known  as  "  Gesangbuchs'  verwasserung  " — Hymn-book 
watering — and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  people,  who  still  re- 
tained a  veneration  of  the  name  and  songs  of  Luther,  and 
not  to  the  schools  and  pulpits,  that  the  devotion  and  virtue 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.    239 

*)f  the  Reformation  were  not  entirely  lost  to  the  worship  of 
the  Church  in  Germany. 

Dr.  Kurtz,  a  zealous  Lutheran,  remarks  of  this  van- 
dalism of  the  last  century  :  "It  was  Klopstock  who  opened 
the  way  for  the  unparalleled  Hymn-book  vandalism  of  the 
period  by  remodeling  twenty-nine  old  church  Hymns. 
Their  numberless  successors  among  the  champions  of  Il- 
lumination only  made  the  more  thorough  havoc  both  with 
contents  and  form.  General  superintendents,  consistorial 
counsellors,  and  court-preachers,  rivaled  each  other  in  pre- 
paring and  introducing  new  Hymn-books,  with  diluted  old 
and  still  more  watery  new  Hymns.  *  *  *  *  These 
are  almost  entirely  of  a  moral  character  ;  and  where  a  well- 
meant  Hymn  of  faith  appears,  it  bears  not  the  least  com- 
parison with  the  Hymns  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  Abstraction,  dogmatic  tone  and  pathos,  are  the 
substitutes  for  the  sublimity,  inwardness,  freshness  and 
nationality  of  the  old  Hymns." 

This  eminent  writer  might  have  applied  his  remarks,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  to  the  Hymnology  of  manj^  other  sec- 
tions of  the  Church,  as  well  as  of  Germany  and  its  neighbor- 
ing countries. 

Bearing  upon  the  same  caution  in  the  selection  and  use 
of  material  for  praise  is  the  action  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  Germany,  which  at  Eberfield  in  1859,  enacted  that  "only 
hymns  whose  authors  are  known  to  be  truly  regenerate 
Christians  shall  be  received ' '  in  the  worship  of  the  con- 
gregation. 

Two  articles  are  inserted  here  in  the  hope  that  they 
will  receive  the  attention  of  the  joint  Committee  on 
Psalmody  referred  to  in  the  preface  to  this  work.  The 
first  is  an  article—"  The  Old  Scotch  Psalmody  " — from  the 
pen  of  Tayler  Lewis,  L.  L.  D. 

Early  in  life  Dr.  Lewis  united  with  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church,  and  continued  a  consistent  member  of  it  till  his 
death  in  1877.  For  more  than  forty  years  from  the  time  of 
his  becoming  Principal  of  Waterford  Academy  in  1833,  till 
the  day  of  his  death.  Dr.  Lewis'  name  was  the  synonym  for 
the  highest  order  of  scholarship.      A  cotemporary  observes 


240  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

of  him  :  "In  classical  and  Biblical  culture  he  had,  perhaps, 
no  superiors  and  very  few  equals  in  modern  times.  His 
knowledge  of  language  was  both  extensive  and  profound. 
He  seemed  to  acquire  it  almost  by  inspiration.  He  was  a 
man,  as  one  of  his  gifted  students  has  sung, 

"  Whose  polyglot  brain 
Seemed  the  lore  of  all  ages  and  lands  to  contain." 

What  is  here  given  from  Dr.  Lewis'  pen  was  a  contri- 
bution to  one  of  the  periodicals  of  his  day,  and  is  interesting 
not  only  on  account  of  its  opinion  of  the  old  Rous's  version 
of  the  Psalms,  but  of  one  of  the  popular  and  much  loved 
hymns  of  the  times. 

THE  OLD  SCOTCH  PSALMODY. 

The  subject  of  hymnology  has  lately  occupied  much  space  in  our  re- 
ligious newspapers.  There  have  been  Dr.  Cuyler's  rich  criticisms,  no 
little  discussion  in  respect  to  Sabbath  school  poetry,  and,  withal,  some- 
thing of  a  spicy  controversy  on  the  merits  of  that  popular  hymn, 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee."  Permission,  therefore,  may  reasonabl,v  be 
asked  for  a  few  words  on  another  department,  which  has  either  been 
wholly  ignored  or  treated  with  contempt.  Reference  is  had  to  the  old 
Scotch  Psalmody,  still  used  by  some  churches  in  this  country,  as  it  is  by 
all  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  Scotland.  It  does  not  deserve  the  un- 
w^orthy  treatment  it  has  received  from  some  who  have  styled  it  "  re- 
ligious doggerel."  We  are  compelled  to  say  this  when  we  think  of  the 
strong  Christianity — strong  to  act  and  strong  to  suffer — which  has  been 
nourished  by  that  intensely  scriptural  style  of  devotional  song  which 
ignorance  and  prejudice  are  so  much  inclined  to  undervalue. 

In  these  matters  we  are  much  influenced  by  association.  The 
writer  has  some  very  precious  early  recollections  connected  with  this 
kind  of  church  music,  and  the  peculiar  methods  of  exposition  to  which 
it  gave  rise.  It  was  the  custom  to  expound  the  Psalm  first  selected,  and 
to  an  extent  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  seriron  itself.  This  would  not 
be  tolerated  now,  as  it  was  practiced  fifty  years  ago  by  those  old 
worthies,  the  venerable  Alexander  Proudfit,  of  Salem,  N.  Y. ;  the  Rev. 
George  Mairs,  Sr.,  of  Argyle,  and  !'r.  Bullions,  of  Cambridge.  Besides, 
it  could  not  be  done  with  our  indiscriminate  hymnology.  There  is  so 
little  in  it  to  expound,  even  in  its  best  effusions;  whilst  in  others  the 
very  attempt  would  but  reveal  the  thinness  and  poverty  of  their  ideaa 
for  the  soul,  though  so  harmonious  to  the  ear,  and  so  pleasing,  some- 
times, to  an  undefined  emotional  sentimentality.  A  studied  exegesis 
would  only  bring  out  their  tautologies,  their  platitudes,  the  barrenness 
of  their  superabounding  epithets.  It  was  not  so  with  the  Scottish  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms  of  David.  With  all  its  seeming  uncouthness,  the 
translation  it  gave  was  most  trustworthy.  It  was  the  Scripture  itself  on 
which  the  expounder  was  commenting.  He  could,  therefore,  safely 
proceed  upon  the  hypothesis  expressed  in  the  Sacred  Word,  and  often 
sung  in  their  devotional  service: 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     241 

"  The  words  of  God  are  words  most  pure; 
They  be  like  silver  tried 
In  earthen  furnace,  seven  times 
That  hath  been  purified." 

Take  a  specimen  from  the  One  Hundred  and  third  Psalm.  It  is  se* 
lected  as  vividly  mingling  with  some  of  those  early  and  ineradicable  as- 
sociations: 

"  Oh  thou  my  soul,  bless  God  the  Lord; 
And  all  that  in  me  is 
Be  stirred  up,  His  holy  name 
To  magnify  and  bless." 

Here  there  is  no  redundancy.  Here  every  word  is  pure,  every  word 
is  true,  every  word  has  a  divine  significance.  The  expounder  could 
throw  his  soul  into  them;  the  people  could  confidently  follow — getting 
into  their  hearts  the  rich  melody  of  the  thoughts  before  uttering  them 
into  song.  Besides  the  lessons  of  gratitude,  or  the  direct  practical  in- 
struction, there  were  other  ideas,  loftv,  profound  and  suggestive.  In 
the  Psalmist's  address  to  his  soul  there  is  the  wondrous  mystery  of  the 
human  quality — the  inner  and  the  outer  man.  In  the  mention  of  God 
and  his  holy  name  there  is  no  tautology,  no  empty  parallelism.  One 
refers  to  the  very  being  of  Deity,  the  other  to  everything  in  nature  or  in 
grace  by  which  God  is  made  known  or  his  glory  manifested. 

"  All  thine  iniquities  who  doth 
Most  graciously  forgive ; 
Who  thy  diseases  all,  and  pains, 
Doth  heal  and  thee  relieve." 

God's  forgiveness  and  his  healing  mercy  ;  the  graciousness  of  both  ;  the 
bodily  a  type  of  the  spiritual  salvation — such  were  the  topics— not  far- 
fetched, surely,  but  a  true  "  opening  of  the  Word,"  regarded  as  divinely 
given  for  human  study  and  the  intelligent  utterance  of  human  praise. 
It  was  a  standing  rule  of  exposition  that  the  lower  or  temporal  salvation 
spoken  of  did  not  exhaust  the  significance  of  the  language.  Its  sublime 
glow,  which  even  the  superficial  reader  can  hardly  fail  to  see,  was  evi- 
dence of  something  greater  there.  It  was  not  an  arbitrary  "double 
sense,"  but  a  mounting  sense,  an  ever-rising,  ever-expanding  sense, 
having  its  base  on  earth,  but  reaching  far  above,  carrying  us  ever  from 
'•  the  tabernacle  "  to  the  "  Holy  Hill,"  from  the  earthly  temple  to  that 
"House  of  God"  in  which  healed  souls  should  "dwell  for  evermore." 
"  If  I  may  but  touch  the  hem  of  his  garment,  I  shall  be  made  whole." 
The  words  refer  to  a  temporal  evil ;  but,  if  uttered  in  a  right  faith,  they 
embrace  the  whole  essence,  the  whole  "healing  virtue"  of  the  great 
Christian  salvation. 

With  Bible  ever  in  hand,  the  people  followed  their  spiritual  guide, 
as  he  made  every  separate  verse  and  word  an  occasion  for  directing  them 
to  analogies  in  every  part  of  the  Scripture.  It  was  a  method  of  keeping 
the  whole  Bible  ever  before  them — its  historical,  its  supernatural,  its 
ritual,  its  devotional  ever  in  connection  with  the  perceptive  and  the 
doctrinal. 

Hence  arose  a  peculiar  language,  which  appears  most  prominent  in 
their  peculiar  Psalmody :  The  House  of  God,  the  People  of  God,  the 
Chosen  of  God,  the  mighty  works  of  God  in  his  dealings   with  them. 


242  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

Under  this  head  there  comes  up  a  reminiscence  of  the  Eev.  George 
Mairs,  the  elder,  and  of  his  manner  of  expounding  the  One  hundred  and 
iourteenth  Psalm. 

"  When  Israel  out  of  Egypt  went, 
And  did  his  dwelHng  change  ; 
When  Jacob's  house  went  out  from  those 
Who  were  of  language  strange." 

Here,  of  course,  the  spiritual  interpretation  was  prominent ;  tlie 
Egyptian  bondage,  the  spiritual  slavery  ;  the  Egyptian  dialect  of  the 
world,  the  new  and  heavenly  speech  of  the  redeemed.  But  these  topics 
did  not  shut  out  the  fair  attention  due  to  the  historical  exegesis  and  the 
poetical  sublimities  of  the  passage.  They  were  dwelt  upon  with  all 
fidelity,  and  without  any  of  that  fastidiousness  with  which  some  might 
now  regard  its  strange  comparisons  or  its  most  daring  apostrophe  : 

"  Like  rams  the  mountains,  and  like  lambs 
The  hills  skipped  to  and  fro. 
O  Sea,  why  fled'st  thou?    Jordan  back 
Why  wast  thou  driven  so  ?  " 

Some  may  smile  at  this.  It  may  be  spoiled  for  them  by  fantastic 
associations,  It  was  not  so,  however,  with  the  men — most  pious,  learned 
and  intelligent  men  hke  Erskine,  Witherspoon  and  Chalmers — who 
listened  to  or  who  taught  this  exegetical  Psalmody.  They  were  at  home 
in  the  scriptural  figures.  They  had  no  need  to  change  rams  into  fallow 
deer  or  skipping  lambs  into  gazelles,  even  if  that  would  seem  to  help  its 
picturesqueness  or  its  euphony.  They  were  not  shocked  by  the  bold 
apostrophe,  so  faithfully  versified  : 

"O  Sea,  why  fled'st  thou?    Jordan  back 
Why  wast  thou  driven  so? " 

The  abrupt  inversion  only  gave  it  the  greater  power,  and  prepared  the 
better  for  the  sublime  answer  that  follows  : 

"■Q  !  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
Earth,  tremble  thou  with  fear." 

It  is  not  a  tautology,  but  an  attempt  to  render  the  Hebrew  Jihidi,  de- 
noting a  convulsive  shuddering.  It  was  the  awe  of  Nature  at  the  appear- 
ance of  her  Lord,  her  shrinking  dread  of  "  Him  who  sitteth  on  the  great 
white  throne,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  heaven  flee  away,  and  there 
is  found  no  place  for  them."  It  was  in  this  manner  that  the  great  Bible 
ideas,  facts  and  images  were  ever  kept  before  the  minds  of  the  people. 
And  thus  was  there  trained  up  a  peculiar  class  of  Bible  Christians, 
having  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  the  like  of  which  is  not  now 
acquired  from  the  best  teachings  of  the  modern  pulpit. 

The  rich  instruction  ended,  then  "  sang  they  to  the  Lord,  and  made 
a  joyful  noise."  From  young  and  old  went  up  the  strain,  borne  on  the 
notes  of  the  quick-ascending  "Mear,"  or  the  waving  "St.  Martin's,"  or 
the  swelling  "Dundee,"  or  in  the  majestic  movements  of  "  Winchester" 
and  "Old  Hundred."  Or  was  it  a  Psalm  of  Zion's  desolations;  then 
did  it  rise  mournfully  in  the  minor  modulations  of  the  wailing  "  Bangor," 
or  of  the  "plaintive  Martyrs  worthy  of  the  name."  To  the  ear  laid 
close  there  might  have  seemed  discords  in  the  tremolo  of  the  old  man's 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.    243 

quivering  voice,  or  in  the  sharp  note  of  the  child  ;  but  in  its  blended 
fullness  it  rose  smooth  and  glorious,  because  beneath  it  all  there  lay  the 
deep  "  fundamental  bass,"  the  "  music  in  the  heart  unto  the  Lord,"  as 
they  thus  sang  his  praises  ' '  with  the  spirit  and  with  the  understanding. ' ' 
In  this  old  Scotch  version  there  are  doubtless  not  a  few  unmusical 
lines.  Its  frequent  division  of  ti-on  into  two  syllables,  its  quaint  and 
sometimes  inadmissible  inversions  may  excite  our  surprise,  or  even  make 
us  smile  ;  but  they  are  very  far  from  justifying  that  epithet  which  has  so 
basely  been  applied  to  it.  It  still  challenges  respect  for  its  substantial 
Hebrew  strength,  its  exhibition  of  the  grand  Hebrew  thought,  and  as  a 
medium  of  that  Biblical  form  of  praise  for  which  no  other  can  be  an 
adequate  substitute.  Another  feature  is  its  clear  objectiveness,  or  the 
striking  contrast  it  presents  to  that  extreme  subjectiveness  which  makes 
much  of  our  most  modern  hymnology  so  feeble  because  so  vague.  The 
former  has  ever  some  glorious  outward  obiect,  or  idea,  drawing  the  soul 
out  of  itself.  Even  the  expression  of  individual  misery,  or  of  individual 
joy,  is  connected  with  some  real  outward  calamity,  or  some  real  outward 
deliverance,  driving  the  soul  to  earnest  prayer  or  rousing  it  to  rapt  thanks- 
giving. Hence  the  difference  of  phraseology  and  the  objective  term 
before  alluded  to  as  peculiar  to  the  one  species  of  pious  song.  The  other 
is  characterized  either  by  a  wholly  subjective  rapture,  or  by  a  continual 
moaning,  a  continual  self-questioning  about  inward  frames  and  feelings. 
Take  for  a  few  examples  the  hymns  beginning  : 

"  I  love  to  steal  away." 

"  Far  from  the  world,  O  Lord,  I  flee." 

*'I  am  weary  of  straying,  O  fain  would  I  rest." 

"There  is  an  hour  of  calm  repose." 

Very  sweet  and  soothing  are  such  hymns  at  times.  They  may  be  chan- 
nels, too,  of  grace;  but  how  different  from  those  more  churchly  strains 
which  the  Scriptures  give  us;  how  different,  too,  from  any  conception 
we  can  form  of  the  hymns  that  Paul  and  Silas  most  probably  sang  at 
midnight  in  the  jail  of  Philippi  ! 

The  subjective  solitariness,  so  inconsistently  loquacious,  often,  in  its 
minute  recitals,  pervades  many  of  the  hymns  sung  as  favorites  in  our 
churches,  but  it  is  very  much  the  same  as  though  each  individual  wor- 
shiper were  singing  them  at  home  in  his  own  parlor  or  study.  Very 
tender  and  touching  are  they:  but  there  is  in  them  no  "  communion  of 
saints."  They  are  not  in  the  style  of  Scripture.  They  give  us  none  of 
those  great  ideas  of  the  people  and  city  of  the  Most  Higli,  which  have 
ever  been  the  accompaniments  of  a  strong  Christianity.  But  listen  now 
to  the  silver  trumpet  of  Zion  in  one  of  her  glorious  "  Songs  of  Ascen- 
sion:" 

"  I  joyed  when  to  the  House  of  God 

Go  up,  they  said  to  me. 
Jerusalem,  within  thy  gates 

Our  feet  shall  standing  be. 

"  To  Israel's  testimony  there, 
To  God's  name  thanks  to  pay; 
Let  them  that  love  thee  and  thy  peace 
Have  still  prosperity. 


244  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

"Now,  for  my  friends'  and  brethren's  sakes, 
Peace  be  in  thee,  I'll  say; 
And  for  the  House  of  God  our  Lord 
I'll  seek  thy  good  alway." 

Again  the  divine  security  of  this  chosen  people — how  much  better  is 
it  expressed  than  in  the  feeble  plaints  with  which  we  might  compare  it  ? 

"  They  in  the  Lord  that  firmly  trust 
Shall  be  like  Zion  hill, 
Which  at  no  time  can  be  removed, 
But  standeth  ever  still. 

"  As  round  about  Jerusalem 
The  mountains  stand  ahvay. 
The  Lord  his  folk  doth  compass  so 
From  henceforth  and  for  aye." 

The  selfish  individual  joy  and  grief  lose  themselves  in  these  allusions  to 
Zion  and  her  sons.     Therefore  it  is  that  the  best  of  our  hymns,  such  as 

"  I  love  thy  kingdom.  Lord," 

have  it  for  chief  merit  that  they  are  mainly  paraphrases  of  this  glorious 
Scripture  language. 

But  let  us  make  a  clearer  contrast  by  means  of  the  popular  hymn 
before  alluded  to— ''Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee."  We  would  not  join  in 
the  censure  that  one  has  pronounced  upon  it  for  not  having  the  name  of 
Christ.  It  may,  however,  be  more  justly  said  that  the  "nearness  to 
God  "  is  not  sufficiently  recognized  as  itself  the  divine  drawing.  It  is  the 
soul  looking  to  itself,  talking  to  itself,  dreaming  to  itself;  the  objective 
dream  of  Jacob  made  subjective  by  being  dreamed  over  again: 

"  Darkness  comes  over  me, 

Daylight  all  gone ! 
Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee. 

Nearer  to  thee." 

Very  beautiful,  very  touching;  but  all  from  within.  Its  cross  is  the 
soul's  sorrow,  something  borne  instead  of  bearing.  This  is  a  Scriptuial 
use  of  the  word,  indeed;  but  it  is  not  the  cross  of  Christ,  the  objective 
cross,  the  great  uplifted  sign  to  which  all  must  look  who  would  be 
healed  of  the  deadly  serpent's  bite.  Equally  subjective  is  the  "  house 
of  God,"  built  from  itself: 

"  Out  of  mv  stonv  griefs 
Bethefl'll  raise." 

This  self-contemplation — or  introspection,  rather — is  carried  along  even 
in  its  lofty  soarings: 

"Sun,  moon  and  stars  forget. 
Cleaving  the  sky." 

This  was  written  by  a  pious  as  M-ell  as  a  gifted  soul.  We  must, 
therefore,  suppose  that  there  was  present  to  it  the  mediatorial  feeling  at 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.     245 

least,  if  not  the  expressed  idea.  For  without  it,  surely  it  would  be  but 
an  Icarian  flight  thus  to  approach,  on  self-made  waxen  wings,  the  burn- 
ing Sun  of  Eighteousness. 

Now  turn  we  to  a  strain  similar  in  its  leading  thought,  but  from 
that  older  Psalmody  in  which  the  Christian  soul  will  ever  find  some- 
thing for  all  its  wants.  It  is  from  the  once  desponding  author  of  the 
Seventy-third  Psalm — the  man  "whose  feet  were  almost  gone,  whose 
steps  had  well  night  slipped."  He  was  falling  into  an  abyss  of  skepti- 
cism in  respect  to  the  divine  providence;  he  was  confounded  by  the 
prosperity  of  evil  men,  until  he  learned  wisdom  by  going  into  the  sanc- 
tuary of  God.  Such  was  his  method  of  approaching  the  Infinite  Help, 
and  this  was  the  way  in  which  a  sense  of  the  adored  presence  affected 
his  soul: 

"  Yea,  surely  it  is  good  for  me 
That  I  draw  near  to  God. 
In  God  I  trust  that  all  my  works 
I  may  declare  abroad. 

"  Tliou,  with  thy  counsel,  while  I  live, 
Wilt  me  uphold  and  guide; 
And  to  the  glory  afterward 
Receive  me  to  abide. 

"  AVhora  have  I  in  the  heavens  high 
But  thee,  0  Lord,  alone  ? 
And  in  the  earth,  whom  I  desire 
Besides  thee,  there  is  none. 

"  My  flesh  and  soul  doth  faint  and  fail, 
But  God  doth  fail  me  never; 
For  of  my  heart  God  is  the  strength, 
My  portion  sure  forever." 

It  is  the  most  lowly  dependence — a  seeking  to  get  hold  of  the  hand 
that  holds  us  (see  Philip.  3:12,  in  the  Greek).  This  is  expressed  in  an- 
other verse,  more  irregular  than  the  rest,  notwithstanding  a  few  slight 
emendations: 

"  Nevertheless,  continually, 
O  Lord,  I  am  with  thee; 
By  my  right  hand,  lest  I  should  fall, 
Secure  thou  boldest  me." 

The  question  is  left  with  the  reader.  But  the  writer  would  not 
shrink  from  expressing  the  opinion  that  there  is  something  unsound  in 
that  religion  which  would  prefer  the  popular  hymn  to  the  ancient 
Psalm,  even  in  a  rhythmical  dress  so  plain  as  that  which  is  given  in 
this  old  Scottish  version. 

The  second  article  is  a  Memorial  presented  to  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Detroit  by  Dr.  George  Duffield,  of  Detroit,  in 
1856.  It  was  read  by  him  and  was  no  doubt  the  expression 
of  his  own  sentiments.     The  Presbytery  adopted  the  Me- 


24:6  David's  habp  in  song  and  story. 

morial,  and  it  was  sent  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  New 
School  Church,  which  met  in  New  York  City  that  year. 

The  "Present  Collection,"  to  which  the  Memorial  re- 
fers, was  the  ' '  Church  Psalmist, ' '  which  had  been  pre- 
pared by  Dr.  N.  S.  Beman,  and  was  recommended  by  the 
Assembly  of  1843. 

The  movement  which  called  forth  the  Memorial  from 
Detroit  was  that  initiated  by  the  New  School  Assembly  of 
1855,  to  purchase  the  Church  Psalmist,  that  the  Assembly 
might  own  it  and  enjoy  the  profits  from  its  sale.  The 
Memorial  expressed  the  desire  of  a  large  number  of  Presby- 
terian ministers  of  that  day  to  have  a  more  faithful  render- 
ing of  the  Psalms  of  David  than  they  had  in  Watts' 
Psalms. 

MEMOKIAL. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  this  memorial  to  disparage  the  merits  of  the 
present  collection,  or  insinuate  aught  unfavorable  to  it,  or  to  the  extreme 
care  that  has  been  taken  to  give  it  poetic  excellence  according  to  the  taste 
and  views  of  the  distinguished  compiler. 

So  far  as  lyrical  odes  were  a  part  of  the  collection,  we  doubt  not  that 
poetic  taste  and  spiritual  piety  have  been  advantageously  blended  in  the 
present  collection,  which  is  especially  characterized  by  the  absence  of  a 
class  of  hymns  found  in  many  others,  by  no  means  sufficiently  elevated 
and  dignified,  either  in  conception  or  language,  to  be  adapted  to  the 
purposes  of  praise  to  God  by  a  worshiping  assembly.  Lyrical  poetry- 
claims  to  excite  and  express  emotion,  but  the  emotions  appropriate  to 
lyrical  song  are  not  all  those  of  which  the  heart  is  susceptible  and  which 
it  is  the  province  of  religious  worship  on  different  occasions  to  induce 
and  indulge.  Epic,  pastoral  and  didactic  poetry  all  find  appropriate  place 
in  spiritual  song.  Some  of  the  Psalms  of  David  furnish  admirable  speci- 
mens of  each.  This  inestimable  collection,  made  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
possesses  a  worth  and  power  far  beyond  anything  to  be  found  in  Watts' 
Imitation,  or  any  other  collection  of  sacred  songs,  the  production  of  un- 
inspired men.  These  collections  have  served  the  purposes  of  evangelical 
religion  in  many  important  respects  ;  but  the  numerous  changes  that 
have  been  made  in  the  Psalmody  of  different  evangelical  Churches  prove 
that  they  have  not  fully  met  the  wants  of  the  members  or  the  purposes  of 
sacred  song.  The  experience  of  a  few  years  has  demonstrated  the  de- 
fectiveness of  our  own  ;  and  the  change  introduced  into  it  in  that  portion 
which  purports  to  be  (as  Dr.  Watts  claimed  for  his)  an  imitation  or 
paraphrase  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  we  think  has  been  an  imperfection 
instead  of  an  improvement.  None  of  them  can  claim  to  be  translations 
and  but  few  of  them  paraphrases  of  the  Psalms  of  David.  There  is  a 
depth,  a  power,  an  unction,  a  reach,  a  grandeur,  a  comprehensiveness 
and  sublimity  in  the  Psalmody  of  the  Bible  which  we  look  for  in  vain  in 
Watts'  Imitation  or  any  other  imitators. 

We  would  not  wish  to  see  the  latter  wholly  excluded  from  our  col- 


THE  PSALMS  IN  AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES.    247 

lection,  for  they  have  become  embalmed  in  the  recollections  and  incor- 
porated with  the  pious  exercises  and  breathings  of  many  devout  worship- 
ers. But  we  see  no  reason  why  they  should  occupy  a  prime  and  con- 
spicuous place,  as  though  they  were  the  Psalms  of  David  or  actually  do 
express  their  identical  thoughts.  They  might  much  more  appropriately 
be  distributed  under  their  respective  suitable  heads  among  the  hymns  or 
spiritual  songs  to  which  they  more  properly  and  characteristically  belong. 
The  wants  and  feelings  of  very  many,  as  well  as  great  and  important 
benefits  that  cannot  be  secured  by  the  existing  imitations,  would  be  much 
more  directly  and  efficiently  met  and  gratified  by  a  restoration  of  the 
Book  of  Psalms  to  its  proper  place,  and,  as  we  think,  the  design  assigned 
to  it  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  acknowledged 
matter  for  the  Church's  praise  in  her  worshiping  assemblies. 

There  is  a  simplicity,  a  pathos,  a  power  and  grandeur  in  most  if  not 
all  of  this  sacred  collection  which  gives  it  incalculable  value.  Its  use,  we 
think,  is  eminently  calculated  to  preserve  the  purity  of  doctrine,  to  i^ro- 
mote  the  power  of  faith,  to  exalt  the  authority  of  the  sacred  Scriptures 
and  to  secure  respect  for  their  inspiration.  Its  value  and  importance 
have  been  proved  abundantly  in  the  early  history  of  the  Reformation  ; 
and  to  the  place  the  Psalter  still  occupies  in  the  rituals  of  different 
Churches  may  be  referred  much  of  that  respect  for  the  institutions  of  re- 
ligion and  the  Word  of  God  which  are  found  among  them.  The  experi- 
ment of  excluding  the  Book  of  Psalms  from  the  matter  of  the  congre- 
gation's praise  has  been  made  extensively  in  this  country  by  all  Protest- 
ant denominations  but  the  Episcopalians  and  a  few  minor  sects  of  Presby- 
terians— Covenanters  and  Seceders. 

The  frequent  changes  and  enlargement  of  the  collection  of  hymns 
in  different  Churches  must  not,  we  think,  be  referred  so  much  to  the  love 
of  novelty  as  to  the  consciousness  that  there  are  defects  and  wants  to  be 
supplied  m  every  collection  that  has  been  adopted. 

Comparatively  few  hymns  are  treasured  up  in  the  memory  by  Chris- 
tian people  generally,  and  prove  always  to  be  acceptable  without  palling 
upon  the  taste  or  becoming  trite.  It  is  singular  and  pre-eminently  char- 
acteristic of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  even  where  the  translation  has  been 
made  into  doggerel  rhyme,  as  in  Rous' s  version,  that  the  sentiment  gives 
value  to  the  language,  and  its  frequent,  yea  continual  and  even  exclu- 
sive use  as  the  material  for  public  praise,  is  not  only  agreeable  but  zeal- 
ously cherished  and  contended  for  as  the  very  thing  which  best  meets 
and  supplies  the  purposes  and  wants  of  a  Christian  people's  praise. 

The  young  may  desire  and  call  for  poetic  compositions  in  which 
sentiment  is  less  regarded  than  splendor  of  imagery  and  beauty  of 
language.  But  where  sentiment  is  secondary  and  style  and  ornament  of 
chief  importance,  the  poetry  that  may  be  consecrated  for  the  purposes  of 
religious  worship  will  not  long  retain  its  freshness  and  power  to  interest 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  devout  who  seek  communion  with  the 
Father,  through  the  Son,  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  the  thought  itself, 
the  grand  and  sublime,  the  tender  and  touching,  the  thrilling  and 
effecting  truth  of  redemption  through  Christ,  and  the  coming  glories  of 
his  coming  and  kingdom,  that  give  to  the  Book  of  Psalms  its  value  and 
power  when  intelligently  employed  for  purposes  of  religious  praise. 
The  person,  work,  character  and  affecting  scenes  and  incidents  in  the 
life  of  Christ,  the  glorious  Messiah,  his  sorrows  and  sufferings,  his 
trials  and  conflicts  and  his  atoning  death,  the  wonders  of  his  resur- 
rection, ascension  and  exaltation  to  the  right  hand  of  the   Father  Al- 


248  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

mighty,  the  progress  and  history,  the  distresses  and  persecutions,  the 
triumph  and  glory  of  the  Church,  the  gracious  retributive  providences  of 
Jesus  Christ,  his  supremacy  and  Lordsliip  over  this  lower  creation,  and 
the  bright  scenes  of  joy  and  blessedness  at  his  coming  in  his  kingdom 
which  enliven  the  Book  of  Psalms,  are  themes  that  can  never  prove  stale 
and  uninteresting  to  the  Christian  heart.  The  longer  the  sentiments  of 
this  Book  have  been  studied  and  used  for  purposes  of  praise  and  sup-  i 

plication  in  the  worship  of  God,  the  dearer  does  it  become  to  the  pious  ' 

heart,  and  the  contrast  between  it  and  other  hymns  becomes  glaring  in 
point  of  strength  and  richness,  of  grandeur  and  power  to  enlighten,  con- 
firm and  invigorate  the  Christian  faith  and  hope,  and  lift  the  heart  up 
to  the  holy  joy  and  conscious,  dignified  and  triumphing  communion 
with  God. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  not  necessary  to  be  stated,  we  would 
respectfully  urge  the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly  and  their  com- 
mittee to  the  subject  of  enriching  our  psalmody  by  the  introduction  of 
the  Psalter,  or  Book  of  Psalms,  as  rendered  in  our  common  prose  trans- 
lation, but  arranged  according  to  Hebrew  parallelism,  so  as  to  admit  of 
their  being  chanted.  The  parallelism  which  forms  a  conspicuous  feature 
of  Hebrew  poetry  seems  to  have  been  specially  adapted,  if  not  designed, 
for  this  sort  of  music.     *    *    * 

Dr.  Watts  was  himself  greatly  in  error  as  to  the  views  he  took  of  the 
spirit  and  design  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  led  him  to  style  many  of 
them  "cursing  Psalms,"  and  represent  them  to  be  unsuitable  to  the 
Christian  spirit.  The  future  tense  indicates  often  mere  prophetic  char- 
acter, and  the  imperative  mood  judged  by  him  as  inappropriate  to  the 
Christian,  when  employed  by  the  Saviour  whom  the  literal  David  per- 
sonated, possesses  a  deep  significancy  and  gives  a  point  and  power  to  the 
denunciation  contained  in  many  of  the  Psalms  by  no  means  inconsistent 
with,  but  corroborative  of,  the  faith  and  hopes  and  spirit  of  the  evan- 
gelical worshiper.  An  intelligent  use  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  for  pur- 
poses of  religious  worship  could  not  fail  to  guard  congregations  against 
the  influx  and  influence  of  dangerous  error  and  keep  before  the  mind 
the  glorious  Saviour  who  apprised  his  disciples  that  "all  things  must  be 
fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the  Book  of  Psalms  concerning  him." 
Luke  24  :  44. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PSALM-SINGING  AMONG  THE   EARLY  NEW  ENGLAND    PURITANS. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  and  in  the  early- 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  all  of  the  church  bodies  in 
England  and  Scotland  encouraged  the  singing  of  Psalms  by 
the  people.  In  an  edition  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  of 
1606  we  find  "that  the  whole  Book  of  Psalms,  with  English 
metre,  with  apt  notes  to  ^ing  them  withal,  were  published 
by  them,  set  forth  and  allowed  to  be  sung  in  all  the 
churches,  of  all  the  people  together,  before  and  after  morn- 
ing praier,  as  also  before  and  after  sermons;  and,  moreover, 
in  private  houses  for  their  godly  solace  and  comfort,  laying 
apart  all  ungodly  songs  and  ballads  which  tende  only  to  the 
nourishing  of  vice  and  corrupting  of  youth. ' ' 

The  Confession  of  the  Puritans  in  1571  decreed: 
<'We  allow  the  people  to  join  in  one  voice  in  a  Psalm-tune, 
but  not  in  tossing  the  Psalm  from  one  side  to  the  other, 
with  the  intermingling  of  organs. ' ' 

The  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  beside  giving 
us  the  Confession  gave  us  this  direction  with  reference  to 
sacred  music:  "It  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  praise  God 
publicly  by  singing  Psalms  together  in  congregations  and  in 
families.  That  it  ought  to  be  the  chief  care  to  sing  with 
the  understanding  and  grace  in  the  heart,  and  that  the  whole 
congregation  join,  and,  as  many  cannot  read,  advise  the 
minister  to  appoint  some  fit  person  to  read  the  Psalm  line 
by  line." 

The  following  extract  from  Pardovan's  Collections 
will  show  how  the  old  Scottish  Church  in  the  first  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century  regarded  Psalm-singing:  "It  was 
this  ancient  practice  of  the  church,  as  it  is  yet  of  som^  Re- 
formed churches  abroad,  for  the  minister  or  precentor  to 
read  over  as  much  of  the  Psalm  in  metre  together  as  was 
intended  to  be  sung  at  once,  and  then  the  harmony  and 
melody  followed  without  interruption,    and   people   either 

(249) 


250  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

did  learn  to  read  or  got  most  of  the  Psalm  by  heart,  but 
afterwards  it  being  found  that  when  a  new  paraphrase  of 
the  Psalms  was  appointed,  it  could  not  at  first  be  so  easy 
for  the  people  to  follow,  then  it  became  customary  that 
each  line  was  read  by  itself  and  then  sung.  But  now,  hav- 
ing for  so  long  a  time  made  use  of  this  paraphrase,  and  the 
number  of  those  who  can  read  being  increased,  it  is  but 
reasonable  that  the  ancient  custom  should  be  revived  ac- 
cording to  what  is  insinuated  in  the  Directory  on  this  sub- 
ject- And  that  such  who  cannot  read  may  know  what 
Psalms  to  get  by  heart,  let  such  be  affixed  on  some  conspicu- 
ous part  of  the  pulpit  as  are  to  be  sung  in  public  at  next 
meeting  of  the  congregation.  It  were  to  be  wished  that 
masters  of  families  would  path  the  way  for  the  more  easy 
introducing  of  our  former  practice  by  reviving  and  observ- 
ing the  same  in  family  worship."  With  such  endorse- 
ments of  Psalm-singing  from  the  churches  of  the  mother 
country,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  song  among  the  churches  of 
the  continent,  extending  over  fifteen  centuries,  as  a  historic 
back-ground,  one  is  surprised  in  turning  to  the  Puritans  of 
New  England  to  find  their  congregations  disturbed  and 
often  torn  to  pieces  over  points  in  sacred  Psalmody  that  had 
never  before  been  seriously  considered. 

There  was  a  considerable  party  in  the  New  England 
churches  who  had  in  some  strange  way  convinced  themselves 
that  it  Avas  "Popish"  to  sing  at  all  in  public  worship.  The 
"lining  out"  of  the  Psalms,  which  had  been  a  temporary 
resort  to  make  up  for  the  scarcity  of  Psalm-books,  and  the 
inability  of  some  to  read,  assumed  a  sacredness  almost  as 
serious  as  a  divine  revelation. 

Because  St.  Paul  had  taught  that  women  should  be 
"silent"  in  the  churches,  it  was  considered  by  many  as  sac- 
rilege for  them  to  be  heard  singing  Psalms  in  public  worship. 
The  efforts  of  some  advanced  spirits  to  reduce  the  discordant 
singing  to  something  like  order  and  harmony,  so  that  the 
churches  could  really  make  "  music  "  to  the  Lord  were  re- 
garded as  alarming  innovations.  The  idea  of  introducing  a 
tuning  fork  to  give  the  pitch  for  singing,  created  as  great  a 
horror  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the  New  England  Christians  as 


PSALM-SINGING    AMONG    THE   EARLY  PURITANS.  251 

would  exist  to-day  in  some  staunch  Presbyterian  church,  if 
the  pastor  in  his  pulpit  were  to  kneel  before  a  crucifix,  or 
swing  a  censer  in  his  service.  It  seems  almost  incredible  that 
the  whole  of  New  England  should  for  many  years  be  in  the 
throes  of  an  intense  and  distracting  controversy  over  issues 
that  are  to  us  now  so  trivial.  To  throw  oil  on  the  troubled 
waters  required  the  most  earnest  efforts  of  the  distinguished 
scholars  and  divines  of  that  day,  and  their  tracts  and  sermons 
on  these  church  controversies  as  preserved  by  Hood,  and 
Gould,  and  Ritter,  are  a  curious  feature  in  the  early  litera- 
ture of  our  country. 

The  opposition  to  all  audible  singing  was  not  peculiar 
to  the  colonists.  It  existed  among  the  Dissenters  of  old 
England.  Among  those  who  labored  to  dispel  the  delusion 
was  Benjamin  Keach.  "Mr.  Keach  was  obliged  to  labor 
earnestly  and  with  great  prudence  and  caution  to  obtain  the 
consent  of  his  people  to  sing  a  Hymn  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Lord's  Supper.  After  six  more  years,  they  agreed  to 
sing  on  Thanksgiving  days;  but  it  required  still  fourteen 
years  more  before  he  could  persuade  them  to  sing  every 
Lord's  day;  and  then  it  was  only  after  the  last  prayer,  that 
those  who  chose  it  might  withdraw  without  joining  in  it; 
nor  did  even  this  satisfy  these  scrupulous  consciences;  for 
after  all  a  separation  took  place,  and  the  inharmonious  se- 
ceders  formed  a  new  church  at  Maze  Pond,  where  it  was 
about  twenty  years  longer  before  the  praises  of  God  could 
be  endured."  A  writer  in  the  Encyclopoedia  of  Knowledge, 
intimates  that  this  was  the  first  church  among;  the  Ensflish 
Baptists  where  Psalm-singing  was  introduced. 

The  Psalm-book  of  Ainsworth  from  which  the  Puritans 
sang  in  their  passage  across  the  sea,  in  1620,  had  printed  with 
the  Psalms  all  the  music  the  colonists  possessed  at  the  time 
of  their  arrival  in  the  New  World.  Hood  says:  This  Psalm- 
book  "was  printed  with  the  melodies  in  which  they  were  to 
be  sung,  placed  over  the  Psalms.  The  music  was  printed 
in  the  lozenge  or  diamond- shaped  note,  without  bars,  and 
was  in  the  German  choral  style." 

According  to  Rev.  Thomas  Symmes,  in  an  essay  printed 
in  1723,  Ainsworth' s  Psalm-book  contained  forty-four  tunes. 


252  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

"Now,  in  Ainsworth's  Psalm-book  there  are  forty-four 
tunes,  and  but  four  of  them  that  1  ever  saw  anywhere,  save 
in  that  Psalm-book.  And  there  the  time  is  pricked  as  in 
Ravenscroft's  and  Plavford's,  at  the  beofinningr  of  the  Psalm; 
or  you  there  find  a  reference  to  the  time  the  Psalm  is  to  be 
sung  in,  so  that  all  the  chief  musician  or  chorister  had  to  do 
was  to  give  the  pitch  and  lead  the  tune,  and  all  were  to  sing 
according  to  the  notes  in  the  Psalm-book," 

Of  these  Psalm-tunes,  Ainsworth  was  only  the  com- 
piler, as  we  learn  from  his  preface:  "Tunes  for  the  Psalms 
I  find  none  set  of  God;  so  that  ech  people  is  to  use  the  most 
grave,  decent  and  comfortable  manner  that  they  know,  ac- 
cording to  the  general  rule.  The  singing  notes  I  have  most 
taken  from  our  Englished  Psalms  when  they  will  fit  the 
measure  of  the  verse;  and  for  the  other  long  verses  I  have 
taken  (for  the  most  part)  the  gravest  and  easiest  tunes  of  the 
French  and  Dutch  Psalmes." 

In  the  Colonial  churches  in  and  about  Salem  the  Psalms 
and  tunes  of  Ainsworth,  as  we  have  seen,  were  used  till  1667, 
and  in  the  churches  at  Plymouth  until  1692.  This  attachment 
for  the  old  version  grew  mainlv  out  of  the  love  the  Pilgrim 
fathers  had  for  Ainsworth,  the  pastor  of  their  captivity  in 
Holland.  "In  their  exile  they  had  used  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins' Psalm-book,  but  gave  it  up  gladly  to  show  honor  to 
the  work  of  their  loved  pastor,  and  perhaps  with  a  sense  of 
pleasure  in  not  having  to  sing  any  verses  which  had  been  used 
and  authorized  by  the  Church  of  England." 

In  16-10,  the  Bay  Psalm-book  was  printed  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  gradually  supplanted  all  others  in  the  colonial 
churches.  From  the  confusion  of  historians  on  the  subject, 
it  is  difficult  for  the  reader  to  conclude  whether  the  first 
edition  of  the  Bay  Psalm-l)ook  had  tunes  printed  with  the 
Psalms  or  not.  Hood  savs :  "The  music  used  for  a  long 
time  before  the  year  1690  was  mostly  written  in  their  Psalm- 
books,  and  had  been  so  from  the  first  using  of  the  Bay 
Psalm-book.  The  number  of  tunes  thus  written  rarely  ex- 
ceeded five  or  six. ' '  Yet  afterward  he  writes  :  ' '  About  the 
year  1690  there  was  for  want  of  a  proper  supply  of  tunes  a 
general  dullness  and  monotony  in  the  music  of  the  church. 


PSALM-SINGING    AMONG    THE   EARLY  PURITANS.  253 

Many  congregations  had  scarcely  more  than  three  or  four 
tunes  that  they  could  sing.  This  great  scarcity  created  the 
necessity  of  appending  music  to  the  Psalm-book,  which  was 
done  about  the  year  1690  ;  for  Mr.  Symmes  says,  in  a  dia- 
logue printed  in  1723,  'as  to  Hackney  and  St.  Mary's,  it 
has  been  pricked  in  one  edition  of  our  Psalm-books  for  these 
thirty  years. '  The  edition  to  which  he  refers  is  probably 
the  first  to  which  music  was  appended.  The  first  we  have 
been  able  to  find  was  printed  at  Boston  in  1698.  The 
printing  of  the  edition  of  1698  is  badly  done,  with  many 
errors  and  without  bars,  except  to  divide  the  lines  of  poetr3^ 
Under  each  note  is  placed  the  initial  of  the  syllable  to  be 
applied  in  singing  by  note,  with  other  directions  for  singing. 
The  tunes  are  Litchfield,  Low  Dutch,  or  Canterbury,  York, 
Windsor,  Cambridge,  St.  David's,  Martyrs,  Hackney  or  St. 
Mary's,  and  100,  115,  119,  148th  Psalm  tunes.  They  are 
printed  in  two  parts  only. ' ' 

The  Bay  Psalm-book  is  interesting  to  music  lovers  be- 
cause of  its  quaint  ' '  Directions  for  ordering  the  voice  in 
setting  these  following  tunes  to  the  Psalms." 

The  first  of  these  directions  is  :  "  Observe  how  many 
notes  compass  the  tune  is.  Next  the  place  of  your  first 
notes,  and  how  many  notes  above  and  below  that  ;  so  as  you 
may  begin  the  tune  of  your  first  note,  as  the  rest  may  be 
sung  in  the  compass  of  your  and  the  people's  voices,  without 
squeaking  above  or  grumbling  below." 

An  attempt  was  made  by  those  who  issued  the  Bay 
Psalm-book  to  have  the  people  sing  their  Psalm  tunes  to  the 
right  Psalms.  Eight  of  the  tunes  were  8s  and  6s,  or  com- 
mon metre.  These  ' '  may  be  sung  to  any  Psalm  of  that 
measure. "  Three  tunes,  Oxford,  Litchfield  and  Low  Dutch, 
were  to  be  sung  to  Psalms  consolatory  ;  York  and  Windsor, 
to  Psalms  of  prayer,  and  confession  and  at  funerals.  St. 
David's  and  Martyrs  were  recommended  for  Psalms  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving.  There  were  directions  also  with  reference 
to  the  pitch.  "These  six  short  tunes  in  the  tuning  the 
first  note,  will  bear  a  cheerful  high  pitch,  in  regard  to  their 
whole  compass  from  the  lowest  note,  the  highest  is  not  above 
five  or  six  notes." 


254  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

"  These  two  tunes  are  eight  notes  compass  above  the 
first  note,  and  therefore  begin  the  first  note  low." 

' '  This  one  tune — One  hundred  Psalm  tune — begin  your 
note  indifferent  high,  in  regard  you  are  to  fall  four  notes 
lower  than  your  first  pitch  note." 

Our  impressions  as  to  the  character  of  the  singing 
among  the  early  New  England  colonies  will  depend  on  the 
historian  we  are  controlled  by. 

In  the  opinion  of  Cotton  Mather,  who  was  identified 
with  colonial  history  from  1663  to  1728,  "their  way  of  sing- 
ing is  not  marked  with  such  disorderly  clamors  as  were  con- 
demned by  the  old  council  of  Trullo,  but  in  such  grave 
tunes  as  are  most  used  in  our  nation;  and  it  may  be  hoped, 
not  without  some  sense  of  that  which  Zonaras  gives  as  the 
reason  of  the  Trullan  condemnation,  the  singing  of  Psalms 
is  a  supplicating  of  God  himself,  wherein  by  humble  prayer 
we  beg  the  pardon  of  our  sins.  Their  Psalmody  is  neither 
set  oif  with  the  delicacies  which  Austin  complained  of, 
nor  is  it  rendered  unseemly  by  the  exorbitances  we  find 
rebuked  by  Chrysostom.  It  has  been  commended  by 
strangers  as  generally  not  worse  than  what  is  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  world,  but  rather  as  being  usually,  according  to 
Origen's  expression,  melodiously  and  agreeably.  However, 
of  later  times  they  have  considerably  recovered  it  and  re- 
formed and  refined  it  from  some  indecencies  that  by  length 
of  time  had  begun  to  grow  upon  it.  And  more  than  a 
score  of  tunes  are  regularly  sung  in  their  assemblies. ' ' 

Of  the  music  at  the  same  period  Rev.  Thos.  Walter, 
of  Roxbury,  Mass. ,  held  a  very  different  opinion.  He  says 
of  the  tunes  sung  in  the  churches  of  his  day,  they  are  "now 
miserably  tortured  and  twisted  and  quavered  into  a  horrid 
medley  of  confused  and  disorderly  noises;  for  want  of  a 
standard  to  appeal  to,  our  tunes  are  left  to  the  mercy  of 
every  unskillful  throat,  to  chop  and  alter  and  twist  and 
change  according  to  their  infinitely  divers  and  no  less  odd 
humors  and  fancies.  *  *  *  There  are  no  two  churches 
that  sing  alike.  Yea,  I  have  myself  heard,  for  instance, 
Oxford  tune  sung-  in  three  churches  with  as  much  difference 
as  there  can  possibly  be  between  York  and  Oxford." 


PSALM-SINGING  AMONG    THE    EARLY  PURITANS.  255 

Miss  Earle  gives  us  one  of  the  mistakes  of  Judge 
Sewall  in  attempting  to  "set  tiie  tune."  "He  spake  to  me 
to  set  the  tune.  I  intended  Windsor  and  fell  into  Hisfh 
Dutch,  and  then  essaying  to  set  another  tune  went  into  a 
key  much  too  high.  So  I  praj^ed  to  Mr.  White  to  set  it, 
which  he  did  well — Litchfield  tune.  The  Lord  humble  me 
that  I  should  be  the  occasion  of  any  interruption  in  the 
worship  of  God." 

Modern  writers  have  perhaps  chosen  extreme  cases  of 
the  crude  Psalm-singing  of  our  colonial  fathers  and  made  it 
out  worse  than  it  really  was.  At  the  present  day  there  are 
congregations,  where  choirs  do  not  lead  the  music,  in  which 
the  tunes  are  just  as  much  twisted  and  tortured,  and  where 
many  a  man  misses  "setting  the  tune  well"  just  as  Judge 
Sewall  did  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

It  is  altogether  probable  that  many  of  the  first  Psalm- 
singers  of  the  colonies  understood  plain  music  well  enough 
to  sing  by  note.  During  the  sixteenth  century  in  old  Eng- 
land Church  Psalmody  made  rapid  progress.  In  1579  John 
Day  published  his  "Psalms  of  David  in  English  meter  with 
notes  for  four  parts  set  unto  them"  ;  and  in  1592  Thomas 
Este  published  "The  Whole  Booke  of  Psalmes  with  their 
wonted  tunes,  as  they  are  song  in  the  churches,  composed  in 
four  parts,  all  of  which  are  so  placed  that  four  may  sing, 
each  one  a  several  parte  in  the  booke."  Still  earlier  in 
the  century  Thomas  Ravenscroft,  "a  fine  composer  and 
skillful  contrapuntist,  but  also  a  man  of  learning,"  issued 
"The  Whole  Booke  of  Psalmes"  and  printed  with  them 
ninety-eight  tunes.  Ritter,  in  his  "Music  in  England," 
tells  us  that  to  perform  the  part-settings  in  this  work  in  an 
appropriate  style  "experienced  choir-singers  were  needed, 
and,  according  to  the  best  information  regardino^  Eno^lish 
musical  matters  at  this  epoch,  such  singers  were  then  to  be 
found  in  every  church  choir. ' ' 

The  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  version,  from  which  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  sang  before  they  fled  to  Holland,  and 
which  must  have  been  used  to  some  extent  in  the  early  New 
England  colonies,  was  the  product  of  the  revival  of  music 
in   the  sixteenth  century.     The  first  issue  of  this  Psalm- 


256  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

book,  printed  in  1562,  had  forty  tunes  in  it,  and  later  edi- 
tions had  these  tunes  composed  in  four  parts  and  made  to 
be  "suno;  to  all  musical  instruments."  The  singino;  of 
these  Psalm  tunes  and  of  those  in  the  Ainsworth  edition 
could  not  have  been  as  barbarous  as  that  of  "the  Gauls  and 
Alemanni  in  the  seventh  century,"  whose  "rough  voices, 
roaring  like  thunder,  are  not  capable  of  soft  modulation. 
Indeed,  their  voices  give  out  tones  similar  to  the  rumbling 
of  a  baggage  wagon  rolling  down  from  a  height,  and  in- 
stead of  touching  the  hearts  of  the  hearers  they  only  fill 
them  with  aversion." 

In  Harvard  University,  which  was  born  in  the  colonies 
within  six  years  after  the  landing  of  the  Puritans,  music 
was  entered  as  one  of  the  studies.  Rev.  Mr.  Symmes 
states  in  one  of  his  discourses:  "It  was  studied,  known 
and  approved  of  in  our  college  for  many  years  after  its  first 
founding.  This  is  evident  from  the  musical  theses  which 
were  formerly  printed,  and  from  some  writings  containing 
some  tunes,  with  directions  for  singing  by  note,  as  they  are 
now  sung;  and  these  are  yet  in  being,  though  of  more  than 
sixty  years'  standing." 

The  same  writer  makes  this  statement:  "There  are 
many  persons  of  credit  now  living,  children  and  grand-chil- 
dren of  the  first  settlers  of  New  England,  who  can  well  re- 
member that  their  ancestors  sung  by  note,  and  they  learned 
so  to  sing  of  them;  and  they  have  more  than  their  bare 
words  to  prove  that  they  speak  the  truth,  for  many  of 
them  can  sing  tunes  exactly  by  note  which  they  learned  of 
their  forefathers,  and  these  people  now  sing  those  tunes 
most  agreeable  to  note  which  have  been  least  practiced  in 
the  congregation  " 

That  there  should  come  a  decline  in  the  New  Eng:- 
land  Psalmody  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  Within  thirty-five 
years  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  in  New  England 
Cromwell  came  to  the  throne  of  England,  and  with  his  ac- 
cession came  the  rage  of  the  Puritan  against  everything 
that  had  the  semblance  of  papacy  with  it.  Among  other 
things  they  vented  their  rage  against  the  music  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church.     Organs   were   destroyed,  church  choirs 


FSALM-SINGING    AMONG    THE    EARLY  PURITANS.  257 

dissolved  and  musicians  were  chased  from  the  organ  gal- 
lery. ''All  the  choral  books  were  taken  from  the  churches 
and  destroyed,  so  that  when  things  were  returned  to  their 
former  state  it  was  almost  impossible  to  procure  notes,  or- 
gans, organists  or  singers."  As  Ritter  states,  "The  art  of 
singing  the  Psalm  tunes  in  the  fine  arrangements  of  Eav ens- 
croft  and  other  English  contrapuntists  was  abandoned  be- 
cause it  reminded  the  people  of  music,  the  frivolous  art, 
and  the  tune  in  its  melodic  simplicity  only  was  allowed  to  be 
sung  by  the  whole  congregation.  Thus  music  with  the 
Puritans  became  a  kind  of  sacred  people's  song.  Plaving 
been  taught  to  look  on  music  as  a  frivolous  product,  fash- 
ioned by  the  evil  designs  of  the  Tempter,  the  Puritan  nat- 
urally shrank  back  with  horror  from  an  artistic  occupation 
that  might  bring  upon  his  soul  punishment  unto  death. ' ' 
This  furor  of  the  Puritans  in  England  would  naturally  ex- 
tend its  spirit  to  those  among  the  colonies  and  produce  in 
them  a  prejudice  under  which  the  art  of  music,  singing  in 
parts  and  by  note,  and  the  very  knowledge  of  many  of  the 
better  tunes  would  pass  into  decline. 

Let  us  add  to  this  the  difficulties  of  the  colonists  in 
their  new  home  in  the  way  of  cultivating  any  of  the  finer 
thinfys  of  settled  social  life.  Troubles  came  upon  them 
"like  the  plague  of  Egypt."  Their  wars  with  the  Indians, 
their  agitation  over  witchcraft,  and  the  coming  of  Roger 
Williams,  and  Ann  Hutchinson,  and  the  Quakers,  with 
their  "heresies,"  perplexed  them  on  every  side,  and  they 
had  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  turn  thir  attention  to 
snch  an  unnecessary  thing  as  music. 

From  the  earliest  days  the  colonists  suffered  for  want 
of  Psalm-books.  Often  only  a  few  in  each  congregation 
would  possess  a  copy,  which  brought  into  use  the  ' '  lining 
out, ' '  which  we  have  seen  had  been  discouraged  among  the 
Reformers  of  the  Continent  and  Great  Britain  ;  and  this 
practice,  if  there  were  nothing  else,  would  destroy  all 
method  and  harmony  in  Psalm-singing. 

The  customs  of  the  Puritans  in  their  worship  had  a 
tendency  to  quench  any  enthusiasm  in  their  Psalmody.  The 
tunes  used  in  many  of  the  congregations  were  so  few  that 


258  David's  harp  in  song  and  story. 

they  had  to  sing  them  over  twice  the  same  Sabbath  in  order 
to  complete  the  round  of  the  public  devotions. 

As  worship  was  held  in  the  families  of  the  colonists 
twice  every  da}',  these  same  tunes  had  to  be  sung  over  many 
times  in  each  week.  In  their  singing  in  the  sanctuary  the 
people  stood,  and  as  their  custom  was  to  sing  a  Psalm  clear 
through,  and  some  of  the  Psalms  had  as  many  as  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  lines,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  spirit  of 
melody  could  not  thrive  under  such  embarrassments.  No 
wonder  the  tired  worshipers  would  "  twist "  and  "quaver  " 
in  their  singing,  and  not  come  out  at  the  end  of  the  tune  at 
the  same  time.  This  decline  in  the  sacred  music  in  the  colonies 
lasted  for  fully  three-quarters  of  a  century,  and  became  so 
extreme  that  when  the  revival  Ijegan,  the  people  had  come 
to  think  there  was  something  sacred  in  the  very  crudities  of 
their  Psalmody.  The  struggles  to  dispense  with  ' '  lining 
out ' '  the  Psalms,  and  to  introduce  singing  by  method,  and 
the  use  of  choirs  and  instrumental  helps,  remind  one  of  the 
battles  of  the  Covenanters  and  Camisards  with  the  Papists. 

Says  Hitter,  with  reference  to  the  lining  out:  "In 
churches  where  they  had  choirs  the  custom  gradually  disap- 
peared, though  not  without  a  struggle  between  the  choir  and 
the  clerk.  Sometimes  the  members  of  the  choir  would  get 
the  better  of  the  clerk  and  his  party,  by  promptly  attacking 
the  tune  of  the  Psalm  set,  in  singing  it  through  in  steady 
tune ;  but  at  other  times  the  clerk,  conscious  of  his  im- 
portant office,  would  bide  his  time  and  take  revenge^  like 
that  clerk  in  a  Massachusetts  town,  where  the  choir,  having 
started  the  tune  without  giving  the  Deacon  time  to  '  line  it 
out,'  he  rose,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  choir's  singing  of  the 
Psalm,  and  gravely  setting  his  spectacles  upon  his  nose, 
opened  the  book,  saying,  '  Now,  let  the  people  of  God  sing, ' 
and  went  on  '  lining  out '  another  Psalm. ' ' 

A  people  who  so  reverenced  their  old  tunes  that  they 
would  uncover  the  head  at  the  sound  of  them,  whether  in 
the  church  or  on  the  streets,  and  who  deemed  them  too 
sacred  for  any  but  Christians  to  sing,  were  not  the  people  to 
surrender  at  the  first  sound  of  battle. 

Strange  characters  were  these  old  colonists.     A  more 


PSALM-SINGING    AMONG    THE   EARLY  PURITANS.  259 

cultured  and  critical  generation  has  delighted  to  call  them 
' '  narrow  ' '  and  ' '  bigoted. ' '  But  they  were  men  of  God. 
They  had  bared  their  breasts  against  the  fury  of  tyrants  as 
their  Plymouth  rocks  had  bared  their  front  to  the  lashing  of 
the  sea  waves.  Their  tunes  and  Psalms  and  Bible  were 
dearer  to  them  than  their  lives.  "Rough,"  were  they? 
Yes,  but  it  was  the  roughness  of  the  diamond.  "  Narrow, " 
were  they?  Yes,  but  it  is  out  of  just  such  "narrow" 
Psalm-singers  that  Christ  for  thirty  centuries  has  been  pre- 
paring a  "peculiar  people,"  who  shall  yet  fill  the  earth  with 
his  praise. 


THE    END. 


GENERAL  INDEX, 


Acrostic  Psalms,  34. 

Ainsworth  Henry,  his  character 
and  standing,  208,  author  of  "An 
Arrow  Against  Idolatrj%"  s;  His 
Psalms  published  in  1612,  s;  At 
once  become  part  of  the  faith  and 
worshij)  of  the  Refugee  Bi'own- 
ists  in  Holland,  209;  Taken  with 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  the  New 
World,  s;  Sole  source  of  praJse 
ill  the  Colonies  for  20  years,  210; 
Copies  of  the  old  editions  still 
extant,  s;  Held  in  great  rever- 
ence, 211;  Mention  of  in  "The 
Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,"  s; 
Specimen  of  Psalm  1,  212;  Super- 
^^e.led  by  "Bay  Psalm-book,"  s; 
The  Psalm  tunes  in  it,  251. 

American  Presbyterian  churches. 

Psalms  in,  225;  Deliverances  on 
the  Psalms  and  Psalm-singing  by 
Reformed,  Associate.  Associate 
Reformed, and  United  Presbyte- 
rian churches,  226,227,  228;  Diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  displacing 
Rous'  version,  23i;  The  Piesby- 
tevian  Church  not  formerly  a 
Hymn-singing  Church  till  the 
iiresent  century,  234;  The  Psalms, 
under  the  title  of  Psalms,  disap- 
])ear,  234;  Importance  of  keeping 
a  jealous  care  over  Hymnology, 
235;  Apostolical  constitutions  on 
Psalm-singing  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, 51. 

Asaph,  two  musicians  of  that  name; 
one  of  the  time  of  David;  the 
other  of  the  time  of  Babylonish 
cai)tivity;  both  of  them  com- 
posers of  Psalms,  23-24. 

Ascetics,  sing  the  Psalms,  69. 

Augustine  on  the  metres  of  the 
Psalms,  32;  On  the  Psalms,  60. 
Baiilesanes,  his  jirivate  Psalms,  52. 
"Bay  Psalm-book,"  first  printed  in 
1640:  212;  Mather's  account  of 
it,  s;  One  of  the  iir.st  books 
jjrinted  in  the  Colonies,  213; 
where  and  how  printed,  s;  Its 


"Admonition  to  the  Reader," 
214;  Revised  by  Dunster  and 
Lyons,  214;  Universally  adopted 
in  Colonial  churches,  216;  Passe.l 
through  70  editions.  217;  Copies 
rare,  s;  Specimen  of  Psalm  133,  s. 

Bedo,  the  English  Psalmist,  149; 
His  early  life,  150. 

Benedict,  his  reformation  in  the 
monastic  rules,  70. 

Beza,  Theodore,  his  versification, 
113;  What  he  says  of  the  singing 
of  the  Psalms  in  Paris,  117;  Ver- 
sion of  Marot  and  Beza  revised, 
129. 

Buchanan,  George,  Scotch  Psalm- 
ist; His  Psalms  written  in  Latin, 
18.3;  Knox's  testimony  to,  s,  that 
of  Leissier,  Mackenzie  and  Orme, 
184;  His  Psalms  a  class  book  in 
the  schools,  s;  Inspire  Isaac 
Watts,  185;  Selection  from,  s. 

Calvin,  his  commentary  on  the 
Psalms,  109. 

Camisards,  their  desert  worship, 
and  their  Psalm-singing  in  bat- 
tle, 126. 

Carlyle  on  Psalm-singing  in  the 
Reformation,  95. 

Canonization  of  saints,  use  of 
Psalms  in,  79. 

Catholics  in  France  and  Psalm- 
singing,  120. 

Charlemagne,  his  attachment  to 
the  Psalms,  77. 

Children  instructed  in  the  Psalms, 
149. 

Chrysostom,  on  Psalm-singing  in 
his  bishopric,  51,  52. 

Columba,  carries  the  Psalms  with 
him  to  Great  Britain,  70. 

Coverdale,  Bishop,  his  "Ghostly 
Psalms"  published  in  1539,  158. 

Author's  addi'ess,  159;  His  versifi- 
cations number  only  thirteen, 
159;  conforms  them  to  the  music 
of  the  "ungodlie  ballates"  of  the 
day,  159.  (260) 


General  Index. 


261 


Crawford,  Rev.  Jno.,  on  use  of 
Psalms  in  modern  times  in  East- 
ern churches,  ()2. 

Crusades,  why  they  drew  so  largely 
from  the  monks,  73;  Pt-alms  in, 
81. 

David,  The  Psalmist  of  Israel,  20; 
Irving' s  eulogism  of,  21;  Author 
of  seventy  Psalms,  22. 

Diane  de  Poictiers,  her  love  of  the 
Psalms,  and  her  persecution  for 
it,  118. 

Divination,  use  of  Psalms  in,  78. 

Dominic,  St.,  his  self-inflictions  by 
reciting  Psalms,  72. 

"Dundee  Psalms,"  182  versified  by 
the  Wedderburn  brothers,  s; 
Prepared  for  the  tunes  of  the 
continent,  s;  No  common  metre 
in  them,  s;  Psalm  LI.  as  sung 
by  Wishart  on  the  night  of  his 
arrest,  183;  Sung  among  Scotch 
till  substituted  by  version  of 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  186. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  English  Psalter 
dedicated  to  her  in  1559,  155; 
Encouraged  Psalm-singing,  156; 
Versified  Psalm  Fourteen,  159. 

Ethan,  a  leader  in  David's  choir, 
24. 

Eusebius,  opinion  of  Hebrew  poet- 
ic measure,  32. 

Festivals,  Jewish,  use  of  Psalms  in, 
39. 

Field  meetings  among  the  Calvin- 
ists  of  the  Low  Countries,  135; 
L^se  of  Psalms  in  them,  135; 
Motley's  description  of,  136;  Use 
of  Marofs  version,  139. 

Gauge  days.  Psalms  in,  77. 

Heman,  a  leader  in  David's  choir, 
24. 

Hojjkins,  Jno.,  the  associate  of 
Sternhold  in  the  English  Psalm- 
book  in  Liturgy  of  1556,  162. 

Horsley,  Bishop,  on  the  collecting 
of  the  P.«alms,  27;  On  Hebrew 
poetry,  33. 

Huguenots,  their  devotion  to  the 
Psalms  and  their  sufferings  for 
it,  123;  Grasse  on  their  singing, 
147. 

Hymns,  best  German  ones  mod- 
eled after  tlio  P;-alm<,  10  i. 


Illumination  of  Psalms,  73. 

James  I.  moves  for  revising  both 
Bil)le  and  P.salm-book,  190;  Cal- 
derwood  si^eaks  of  his  under- 
taking, s;  The  King  himself  at- 
tempts paraphrasing  the  Psalm-^, 
190;  Beattie  on  the  King's  Psal- 
ter, 191;  Efforts  of  King  Charles 
to  have  the  Royal  Psalter  intro- 
duced among  the  Scotch,  191, 
192. 

Jerome  on  the  Hebrew  poetry,  32; 
On  Psalms.  61;  His  Psalter  trans- 
lated into  English,  152. 

Jones,  Abner's,  version,  221.  Its 
numerous  versifications,  222; 
Specimen  of  Psalm,  23,  s. 

Jones,  Sir  W.,  applies  Arabic 
metres  to  the  Psalms,  33. 

Josephus,  his  opinion  of  the  char- 
acter of  Hebrew  poetry,  32. 

Julian,  his  persecution  of  the  early 
Christians,  56. 

Justinian,  his  polyglot  Psalter,  88. 

Kitto,  on  Rhyme  in  the  Psalms,  33. 

Korah,  "sons  of,"  authors  of  ten 
Psalms;  and  singers  in  the  Tem- 
ple choir,  24. 

"Lining  out"  of  the  Psalms  for- 
bidden by  a  French  Synod,  129. 

Lobwasser  his  German  Psalm- 
book,  105. 

Lowth,  Bishop,  on  the  Acrostic 
Psalms,  34. 

Luther,  the  German  Psalmist,  100; 
His  exposition  of  the  Psalms,  101 ; 
His  metrical  Psalms  largely  used, 
103;  Their  influence,  104;  His 
"Eine  Feste  Burg  ist  unser 
Gott,"  104;  His  love  of  music, 
143;  A  composer,  144;  Supports 
duty  of  Psalm-singing,  144. 

Marot,  French  versifier  of  the 
Psalms,  111;  His  first  versifica- 
tions printed  in  Rome  in  1542, 
1 12.  Their  enthusiastic  use,  114; 
Persecutions  of  Marot,  118. 

Mather,  Cotton,  his  "Psalterium 
Americanum,"  218;  Arranged 
without  rhyme,  s;  Selection  from 
Ps.  116,  s. 

Meibomius  professes  to  have  dis- 
covered the  lost  system  of  He- 
brew metres,  33. 


262 


General  Index. 


^Monasteries,  use  of  Psalms  in  the 
worship  and  discipline  of,  64,  71. 

Montagu, his  versitication  of  Psalm, 
100;  In  Acrostic,  35. 

Mosheim,  on  Psalm-singing  in  the 
Primitive  Church,  44. 

Nestorians,  use  of  Psalms  at  the 
present  day,  61. 

Notker,  his  Psalms  in  the  Teutonic 
specimen  of,  86. 

Paul,  of  Samosata,  suppression  of 
Psalms,  53. 

Poetry  of  the  Psalms,  30. 

Polyglot  Psalms,  86,  88. 

Printing,  first  work  from  the  new 
type  a  Psalter,  87;  Promotes  ex- 
tensive use  of  Psalm,  92. 

Psalms— Testimonials  to  —  Henry 
V.  of  England,  Josei)h  Addison, 
Salmasius,  Humbolt,  Darnley, 
Burleigh,  Dickson,  13;  Henry 
Stephanus,Herder,  John  Mueller, 
John  Jacob  Moser,  15;  Lamar- 
tine,  Schlegel,  Kitto,  Home, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  16;  GilfiUan, 
Taylor  Lewis,  St.  Basil,  St.  Am- 
brose, Augustine,  60;  Jerome, 
61;  Luther,  101;  Calvin,  109,  Dr. 
Owen,  202. 

Psalms  —  Authorship  —  Moses, 
author  of  Ninetieth  Psalm,  18; 
David,  author  of  seventy  Psalms, 
22;  Asaph,  author  of  twelve 
Psalms,  23;  Heman,  author  of 
one  Psalm,  24;  Ethan,  author 
of  one  Psalm,  24;  "Sons  of 
Korah,"  authors  of  ten  Psalms, 
24;  Many  composed  during  or 
after  captivity  in  Babylon,  25; 
Westcott's  objection  to  Macca- 
bsean  authorship,  25;  CoUeciing 
of,  26;  Bishop  Horsley,  on  the 
collecting  of  the  Psalms,  27; 
Prophetic  of  Christ,  28;  Designed 
as  a  Book  of  Praise,  29;  Charac- 
ter of  their  poetry,  30;  Acrostic 
Psalms,  34;  Use  of  in  Jewish 
Church,  35;  Use  of  Psalms  in 
war,  38;  Use  of  in  Jewish  festi- 
vals, 39;  Use  of  in  Primitive 
Church,  44;  Psalms  sung  at  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
49;  Their  wide  distribution  in  the 
fourth  century,  50;  Psalm-singii  g 


a  pa.'-time,  51;  Singing  of  Psalms 
condt'mned,  54,  118,  123,  139; 
Liturgical  use  of,  54;  in  burial  of 
the  dead,  56;  Sung  during  the 
Arian  persecution, 58;  Old  ^IS.  on 
Papyrus  from  fourth  century,  59; 
Use  of  in  the  dark  ages,  64;  use 
of  Psalms  in  the  Monasteries,  64; 
Among  the  ascetics,  69;  Carried 
to  Ireland  and  Scotland  by  Col- 
umba,  70;  Use  of  in  Monastic 
penalties,  71;  In  the  illuminating 
and  illustrating  of  manuscripts, 
73;  In  perambulating,  77;  In 
divination.  78;  In  canonization 
of  the  Saints,  79;  In  unction 
at  sick  beds,  80;  In  dedica- 
tion of  churches  and  ceme- 
teries, 80;  In  devotions  over  the 
dead,  80;  In  the  crusades,  81; 
Versions  of,  82;  First  printed 
book  a  Psalter,  87;  In  the  Refor- 
mation, 90;  In  the  singing  of  the 
multitude,  93;  Among  the  Wal- 
denses,  96;  The  Hussites,  99; 
Luther's  version,  10 j!;  Use  in 
modern  Lutheran  churches,  105; 
Use  of  in  countries  bordering  on 
Germany,  106;  Use  of  among 
Swiss  and  French,  107;  Among 
the  nobles  at  the  French  court, 
115;  License  to  sing  them  by 
Henry  IX.,  119;  Use  of  author- 
ized by  French  Synod  in  1559, 
128;  In  a  French  Liturgy  of  the 
modern  Huguenots,  130;  In  the 
Low  Countries,  134;  Decline  in 
Psalm-singing  in  German  in  later 
times,  145;  Among  the  English 
people,  149,  154;  Psalm-singing 
commended  by  Cuthbert,  150; 
Extends  to  the  service  of  the  es- 
tablished church,  157;  Wide  use 
of  in  the  homes  of  the  people  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  179; 
Picture  of  a  Scotchman's  family 
worship  from,  "Cotter's  Satur- 
day night,"  179;  Psalm-singing 
in  English  and  Scotch  armies, 
179;  A  Covenanter  communion, 
178;  Distate  of  the  Scotch  for 
theRoval  Psalter  of  King  James, 
h'2.  The  Psalms  in  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  193;  Determ- 


General  Index. 


263 


ination  of  its  commissioners  to 
have  only  a  close  rendering,  198; 
Sung  at  battles  of  Dunbar  and 
Drumclog,  203;  Psalms  and 
Psalm-singing  in  New  England, 
207;  Used  at  the  departure  of  the 
Puritans  from  Holland,  209; 
First  notes  of  praise  on  the  New 
England  shores,  from  the  Psalter 
of  David,  210;  Psalm  -  singing 
among  the  American  Indians, 
222;  Translations  into  dialects  of, 
223 ;  Selection  from  Elliot' s  Indian 
Psalms,  s;  Use  of  Psalms  in 
American  Presbyterian  churches, 
225;  An  enactment  restricting 
the  Psalmody  of  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian church  to  the  Psalms 
only,  226;  Same  in  Associate 
church,  227;  In  Associate  Re- 
formed church,  s;  In  United 
Presbyterian  church,  228.  Pres- 
ent version  of  United  Presby- 
terian church,  when  adopted, 
229,  230;  Its  merits,  230;  The  be- 
ginning of  the  movement  in  the 
Presbyterian  church  to  substitute 
other  than  a  close  rendering  of 
the  Psalms,  231;  Difficulties  in 
the  way,  s;  IMemorial  of  Detroit 
Presbytery,  246. 

Publia,  beaten  for  her  singing  of 
Psalms,  by  Julian,  57. 

Puritans,  in  Old  England  use  no 
particular  version  of  Psalms,  207; 
Versions  of  Merrick  and  Sandys, 
and  Barlow  and  Rous,  all  have 
their  friends,  s;  In  time  the 
Psalms  and  Hymns  of  Dr.  Watts 
displace  all  others,  208;  Sacred 
music  among  them,  249;  Their 
Confession  on  Psalm-singing,  s; 
Their  scruples  as  to  women  sing- 
ing; As  to  "lining  out"  the 
Psalms,  250;  The  character  of 
their  singing,  254;  Difficulties  of 
its  cultivation,  256. 

Quindreda,  Psalm-book  of,  82. 

Kliyme,  invented  since  the  com- 
posing of  the  P.salms,  31. 

Reformed  churches  of  France  and 
Switzerland,  peculiarity  of  their 
Psalmodv,  107. 

Reformation,  Psalms  in,  91. 


Rous,  Francis,  author  in  part  of 
Rous'  version,  incipient  move- 
ment for  this  Psalm-book,  193, 
195;  His  character,  s;  Refers  to 
his  work,  196;  After  seven  years 
of  revising  is  adopted,  198;  Still 
in  use,  200;  its  merits,  s;  Speci- 
mens of  their  crudeness,  201 ;  At- 
tempts to  have  his  version  intro- 
duced into  the  English  Episcopal 
church,  164;  Use  of  in  American 
churches,  203;  Sung  at  battles  of 
Dunbar  and  Drumclog,  s;  Testi- 
monials to,  204;  Revised  and  im- 
proved by  American  churches, 
228;  Singing  Rous'  Psalms  and 
loyalty  to  the  colonial  cause 
synonymous,  231;  Dr.  Tayler 
Lewis  on  the  Scotch  Psalms,  239. 

Sandys,  George,  an  Eng  ish 
Psalmist;  composes  his  Psalms 
by  the  James  river,  168;  Mont- 
gomery's c  impliment  of  his 
Psalms,  169;  His  version  of 
Psalm  29,  169. 

Scotch  The,  Psalm-singing  among, 
177;  the  Psalmists  of  foreign 
birth,  s;  Lack  of  musical  en- 
thusiasm, s;  History  of  Psalmody 
in  the  homes  and  churches  of 
the  people,  178;  A  Covenanter 
communion,  s;  Family  worship, 
179;  Psalms  in  camp  life,  180; 
Psalm-singing  began  early,  181; 
"Dundee  Psalms,"  182;  The  love 
of  the  Scotch  for  Buchanan's 
Psalms,  185;  Adopt  the  Psalms  of 
Sternhold  &  Hopkins,  186;  Act 
independently  of  the  English, 
187;  Scottish  Psalter  completed, 
1564,  188;  Used  in  Holland,  189; 
Movement  for  a  new  version,  s; 
Resist  the  introduction  of  the 
Psalter  of  King  James,  191; 
Scottish  Kirk  slow  to  adopt  Rous' 
version,  198,  199;  Rous'  version 
among  the  Covenanters,  202; 
Pai'dovan  on  the  Scotch  Psal- 
mody, 249. 

Spanhiem  on  Psalm-Singing  in  the 
Primitive  Church,  44. 

Sternhold,  Thos.,  one  of  the  versi- 
fiers of  the  Psalms  that  came  to 


264 


Generai.  Index. 


bo  bound  up  with  the  Enelish 
IJturgy,  ]61;  Upeof  this  version 
in  New  England,  165. 

St.  Patrick,  the  apostle  to  the  Irish, 
his  exercise  in  the  Psalms,  151. 

Tate  and  Brady,  versifyers  of  the 
"New  Version,"  that  took  the 
place  of  the  "Old  Version"  in 
tile  English  church,  169;  Intro- 
duced under  sanction  of  William 
III.,  Dec.  3,  1696;  Their  version 
first  used  in  the  churches  of  Lon- 
don, 170;  Opposition  to  use  of 
the  "New  Version"  by  the 
masses,  171;  Testimonies  to  "'New 
Aversion"  by  Compton,  Drake, 
and  British  Encyclopedia,  171. 

Temple  Service,  use  of  Psalms  in, 
35. 

Tertullian,  on  use  of  Psalms  in  the 
African  churches,  50. 

Tholuck,  his  translation  of  134th 
Psalm.  38. 

Toulouse,  council  of,  forbids  trans- 
lations, 86. 

Tours,  council  of,  its  canon  on 
Psalm-singing,  68. 

Trinitarians,  singing  the  Psalms  in 
1  aim  groves  of  Syria,  59. 

Troubadours,  their  influence  in 
the  revival  of  Psalmody,  94. 

Tunes  sung  to  Psalms  in  Germany, 
142;  Luther  preparing  them,  145; 
In  France,  146;  In  England,  156, 
208;  Mason,  on  Reformation 
Psalm  tunes,  147,  179;  Psalm 
tunes  of  Colonies,  251;  Directions 
for  singing  them,  253;  Character 
of  it,  254. 

Versions  of  Psalms,  82;  In  Hebrew, 
82,  84;  In  Greek,  83;  In  Italic,  83; 
In  Galilean.  83;  In  German,  85; 
In  Slavonic,  85;  In  Norman 
French,  86. 

Versions  metrical,  by  Martin 
Luther,  103;  By  Ambrose  Lob- 
wasser,  105;  By  Marot,  111; 
By  Beza,  113;  By  Peter  Dothen, 
139;  In  Dutch  rhyme,  by 
PhiHp  de  Marnix,  140;  By 
Dirk  Rafael  Kamphuyzen,  his 
paraphrase  of  Psalm  133,  as 
translated  by  Longfellow,  141; 
Anglo  Saxon    version,   by  Aid- 


helm,  149;  By  Bede,  149;  Trans- 
lation (jf  Jerome's  Latin  Psalter, 
into  Anglo  Saxon,  152;  Richard 
Rolle's  English  version,  152  His 
rendering  of  Psalm  23,  153;  Cov- 
erdale's  metrical  version,  158; 
Hunnis'  "Seven  Sobs  for  a  Sor- 
rowful Soul  in  Sin,"  160;  Version 
of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  160;  Ver- 
sion of  Thomas  Sternhold  and 
John  Hopkins,  161;  The  "Old 
Version"  of  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins continued  in  use  in  England 
till  Restoration,  164;  Still  author- 
ized by  United  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  Ireland,  165;  Criti- 
cisms on  the  version  of  Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins,  165;  Speci- 
mens from  Psalms  78,  verse  46, 
and  Psalm  74: 12,  166;  Version  of 
Archbishop  Parker,  167:  Lord 
Bacon's  versifications,  168;  Bax- 
ter's paraphrase  of  1692,  168; 
Versifications  of  Withers  and 
Sandys,  p.  168:  Version  of  Tate  & 
Brady,  169;  Version  of  Dr.  Isaac 
Watts,  171;  Version  of  the  Wes- 
ley Brothers,  175;  Testimonial  of 
Chas.  Wesley  in  rhyme  to  the 
Psalms,  175;  Version  of  Joseph 
Addison,  175;  Version  of  James 
Montgomery,  176;  Lord  Bvron"s 
137th  Psalm,  176;  "Dundee 
Psalms,"  by  the  Wedderburns, 
182;  Latin  Psalms  of  George 
Buchanan,  183;  Scottish  Psalter, 
188;  Psalter  of  King  James,  191; 
Rous'  version,  193;  Gaelic  ver- 
sion, 204;  Psalms  1,  in  the 
Gaelic,  2t'5;  Translated  into  the 
Welsh,  205;  Into  the  Irish 
language.  206;  A  ins  worth's  ver- 
sion, 208;  ''Bay  Psalm-book," 
212.  "Psalterium  Americanum," 
218. 

Waldenses,  Psalm-singing  among, 
96. 

Watts,  Isaac,  his  Psalms  and 
Hymns,  171;  His  Psalm-book, 
with  Hymns  published  in  1719, 
171 ;  His  motive  in  versifying  the 
Psalms,  172;  Extensive  use  of, 
172;  Criticisms  of,  173;  His  Ceno- 
taph, erected  1846,  174;  Largely 


General  Index. 


265 


used  in  New  England,  220;  Al- 
lowed by  Presbyterian  church  in 
1787,  s,  bwight's  revision  of,  221. 

Westcott,  his  objection  to  the  Mac- 
cabtean  authorship  of  Psalms,  25. 

Westminster  Assembly,  convened 
by  the  English  Parliament,  June 
12.  1643,  193;  Competitive  ver- 


sions before  it,  194;  Subject  of 
new  version  first  before  the 
House,  196;  Scotch  commission- 
ers slow  in  taking  part,  197; 
Finally  adopt  a  new  version,  199. 
Zwingle,  his  influence  in  the  sing- 
ing of  Psalms  in  the  Eefonn;; 
tion,  108. 


